GUC’s Public Information Office (Pub Info) was recently recognized by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) with a gold award for two virtual tour videos produced in 2020.  

Pub Info submitted two video entries for the Viddy Awards. “Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Tours” won gold in the long form educational category while “Remembering Hurricane Floyd” received an honorable mention in the long form historical category. 

About The Videos

GUC’s Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants are typically a hot spot for school tours. However, as school started in the fall of 2020, the pandemic prevented GUC from allowing the public to visit our facilities. In an attempt to continue educating students about water and wastewater treatment, Pub Info partnered with Human Resources (HR) to produce video tours.  

Both videos utilize Plant employees to explain the entire treatment processes and how water travels from the river to the faucet and then back to the river. “We wanted the videos to mimic our Water and Wastewater tours as if the student or visitor were there in person,” said HR Manager Lena Previll. 

The videos were published online, and HR began releasing them to schools that had been requesting virtual tours. “We received a lot of positive feedback from teachers and schools,” said Lena. “The videos were also used in March as part of the Chamber’s Grow Local Program, since students were unable to physically tour our facilities for that event.” 

A huge thank you goes out to the following employees who contributed to the video tours: Karin Fullington and Emily Garner with Pub Info; Lena Previll with HR; Julius Patrick, Chad Flannagan, Ryan Gregory, Dail Booth, Chris Earls, Brooke Norton, and Robert Veale with the Water Treatment Plant; and Jason Manning, Corey Mills, Jerry Jones, Crystal Respess, Kevin Hardee, Travis Lancaster, Kyle Meeks, Bryon Orr, JoEllen Gay, Karen Foster, and Chris Hill with the Wastewater Treatment Plant.  

“The videos are a valuable educational resource for schools and students,” said Communications Specialist Karin Fullington. “The processes of water and wastewater treatment can be quite technical, but together we created a visual story that not only children can understand, but it can live on through video for years.” 

About The Award 

The Viddy Awards is an international competition designed to honor creative excellence in all aspects of video production. It is administered and judged by the AMCP.  Entries are usually from ad agencies, public relations firms, government agencies, schools, TV stations, and independent producers. 

“We often enter awards competitions against other utilities and government agencies,” said Public Information Officer / Communications Manager  Steve Hawley. “It’s nice to see how the work we do stacks up against other communicators outside of the utility industry.”