The SAMMY Awards - Finalists / Winners

New Champ Tops the Integration Arena

In a project demanding immense skill, Stanley Convergent Security Solutions (CSS) blends a multitude of old and new systems into a thoroughly integrated solution controllable from a single command point. The company marshals the full measure of its considerable resources to exceed the expectations of Indiana’s Conseco Fieldhouse, subsequently winning SSI’s 2010 Integrated Installation of the Year Award.

ASG’s Award-Winning Ascent

All ASG did in 2009 was post its seventh consecutive record year of revenue growth. Even in the toughest of times, this thriving regional provider — SSI’s 2010 Installer of the Year — stands as a testament to the power of shrewd management and relentless drive.

Brand Awareness Helps Conservative Company Flourish

Established in 1982, Lenexa, Kan.-based Atronic Alarms considers itself to be a conservative marketer, relying mostly on its existing client base and word-of-mouth referrals. It’s rare the company places ads in publications, but when it does, the goal is not to use scare tactics to attract potential customers. Instead, Atronic positions its ads more for branding and awareness.

Practical Gifts Keep Clients Happy

When thinking about the perfect giveaway items to give out to clients, Exton, Pa.-based The Protection Bureau President Matthew Ladd strives to give the people what they want, and more importantly, what will be useful to them. So far, this tactic has worked, especially since this is the second year the company has earned the Best Promotional Giveaway Item SAMMY.

JCI Web Site Aims to Raise Systems Integration Profile

Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) may be synonymous with systems integration among electronic security professionals, but outside the industry the company’s life-safety services apparently do not enjoy anywhere near the same degree of recognition as its building automation business.

Regular Communications Maintain Customer Connections

The headline story on the next edition of The SecurTek Monitor will likely crow about the Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada-based monitoring specialist running its string of consecutive SAMMY Awards for Best Newsletter to an amazing three in a row. The quarterly publication is only a couple of pages, but is very polished looking and full of safety tips, systems/services updates and company news.

Don’t Underestimate the Payback of Giving Back

As big as it is in size, with more than 2,000 employees working out of more than 75 branch locations generating in excess of $465 million, Naperville, Ill.-headquartered Stanley Convergent Security Solutions (CSS) has proven its collective heart is just as large. In 2009, the Stanley Gives Back program helped more than 35 different charities across the nation, donated in excess of 12,000 hours in volunteer work and raised more than $102,000 for assorted philanthropic causes.

Vehicle Graphics Design Is No Idle Mission

After taking home the SAMMY for Best Overall Integrated Marketing Campaign in 2009, Smith & Wesson Security Services found itself back in the limelight this year with its winning vehicle graphics design entry.

Spreading the Security Message With Radio

Vector Security’s SAMMY Award-winning radio broadcast ad opens with an upbeat female voice declaring on an outgoing answering machine message, “Hi, Steve and Margie aren’t home. We’re taking the vacation of a lifetime! That’s right; no one will be home for the next three weeks.”

The Gallant Knight Protects the Masses

When he started the company 16 years ago, Carter Rierson, president of Waunakee, Wis.-based Best Defense Security and Fire Protection, was fully aware that name recognition is a big part of growing a business. Thus, he wanted to create a logo that not only caught the eye of his community, but one that represented the company well.

Targeted Marketing Is About Solving Customers’ Needs

“We try to emphasize the value of the service we are providing to customers, rather than focusing on the equipment itself,” says Leanne Woodhouse, general manager of Marketing and Dealer Relations for SecurTek, a Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada-based provider of monitoring services for more than 70,000 customers. “We try to make sure that we identify who our target market is, what issues or concerns they are facing and then try to make sure that our marketing initiatives address that.”

Coordinated Effort Emphasizes Branding, Messaging, Customers

While cynics might look at a company the size of Stanley Convergent Security Solutions (CSS) and say, “Of course they have great marketing materials, they have the money to do whatever they want,” upon closer scrutiny the principles, creativity and drive the 2,000-people-strong company exemplifies would likely lead to success regardless of budget.

SSI Announces SAMMY Award Winners

SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION hosted its 15th annual SAMMY Awards at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas on March 23 in an effort to recognize security dealers and systems integrators who exemplify professionalism in their sales, marketing and installation endeavors.

CSS: A Super Security Tool in Stanley’s Box

When Stanley Works sought to expand into security systems installation and monitoring the familiar toolmaker did so by picking up one of the sharpest possible instruments - HSM Electronic Protection Services. Now known as Stanley Convergent Security Solutions (CSS), the business was already among the industry's top national providers when it was purchased in early 2007, and it has only grown stronger.

Practices Make Protection Bureau Perfect

Matthew Ladd, president/COO of The Protection Bureau, has finally given his father and company founder Keith the trophy he always desired the most. For years, Matthew would triumphantly bring SSI's SAMMY (Sales & Marketing) awards back to his dad who would say, "Great job, you should be proud. But where is the Installer of the Year?"

Strong Branding Earns Urban Alarm a Profitable Reputation

Urban Alarm of Washington D.C. may be a small company of only eight employees, but its savvy logo branding earned a big win at the SAMMYs and notable recognition among its local customer base.

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:42 PM

Protection Bureau's Giving Nature Gets the Gold

Visitors to The Protection Bureau don't leave empty-handed. True to its slogan, "Big enough to protect, small enough to care," the family-run security systems and monitoring provider treats customers to the sort of hospitality a doting mother bestows upon the homecoming of her only son. "We have a rule that when a guest comes to The Protection Bureau, they leave with a gift," says company President Matthew Ladd.

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:41 PM

Stanley's Brochure Hits Home With Customer Service

Naperville, Ill.-headquartered Stanley Convergent Security Solutions (CSS) takes no prisoners when it comes to delivering the highest standards of security solutions, professionalism and customer service. This is reflected in marketing campaigns and materials that have made Stanley CSS, dating back to when it was HSM Electronic Protection Services, a fixture at the SAMMY Awards program.

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:39 PM

SafetyCare Focuses Site on Marketing Prize

SafetyCare of Reading, Pa., has an important story to tell - a story of dedicated individuals working to improve the health and well-being of seniors and special needs individuals.

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:35 PM

Provident Displays Marketing Success

After winning a SAMMY for the best Web site design in 2008, Provident Security of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, walked away with recognition for the Best Display Advertisement this year.

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:33 PM

ASG Uses Creativity as Vehicle for Marketing

Beltsville, Md.-based ASG Security is no newcomer to the SAMMYs. The company has repeatedly proven its hard work and inventive marketing initiatives are successful and award-worthy. ASG, which designs, installs, services and monitors intrusion, fire, access and video surveillance systems, won four SAMMYs last year - Community Services Program, Company Logo Design, Promotional Giveaway Item and Residential Sales Brochure. This year, the company walked away with recognition for the Best Vehicle Gr

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:31 PM

Dealer Program Takes Steady Aim

The largest maker of handguns in the United States entered into a new realm of recognition when its security services division racked up an award at this year's SAMMY ceremony.

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:30 PM

Company Finds Giving Key to Receiving

Custom Alarm of Rochester, Minn., humbly began in the basement of Leigh Johnson's home in 1968. While the company has grown to employ more than 75 people and monitor in excess of 5,000 accounts with its own central monitoring station, it has never lost sight of serving the community around it.

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:30 PM

SAMMYs 2009: Making Marketing Magic

SecurTek Monitoring Solutions, Custom Alarm and seven other industry-leading companies reveal their award-winning sales, business and installation practices and techniques. Top marketing minds explain how to balance effectiveness and expenditures.

posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:27 PM

2009 Winners and Finalists Entries

Dozens of electronic security professionals submitted quality marketing tools in this year's SAMMY Awards. The 2009 winning and finalist entries can be viewed here.

2009 SAMMY Winners Announced!

SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION announced the winners of the 14th Annual SAMMY Awards at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas on March 31 in an effort to recognize security dealers and systems integrators who exemplify professionalism in their sales, marketing and installation endeavors. Winners will be featured in an upcoming issue of SSI.

14th Annual SAMMY Finalists Announced

SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION is proud to announce the 2009 SAMMY Awards finalists! The SAMMY program honors security dealers and systems integrators who exemplify professionalism in their sales, marketing and installation endeavors. And the finalists are…

SAMMYs Super Marketers

Launched little more than a half-decade ago, Beltsville, Md.-based ASG Security has wasted little time becoming one of the industry’s largest installing security systems providers. Expected to grow more than 30 percent for the fifth year in a row, ASG projects 2008 revenues will top $87 million. Much of this success can be attributed to an obsessive dedication to deliver premium customer service, and an inspired marketing plan.

posted @ Tuesday, June 03, 2008 1:11 PM

Marketing’s Guardian

Guardian Protection Services knows a thing or two about marketing, and its display case holding a total of 15 SAMMYs proves it. The armoire is proudly showcased at the company’s corporate office in Warrendale, Pa. — just 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh — and is a good indicator that Guardian is an industry leader where marketing is concerned.

posted @ Tuesday, June 03, 2008 1:10 PM

Marketing That Makes the Mark

The SAMMY Awards were in full swing this year with seven companies splitting the wares in a dozen categories. Those that clinched a trophy and earned bragging rights are at the forefront of a wave of marketing trends in which the focus is placed squarely on exceptional customer service, and the use of cost-efficient tools such as recycled paper and electronic media.

Click to view the winners profiles.

Marketing Monster of the Midway

In the time since the inaugural SAMMY Award prize was bestowed one evening in 1995, a select few companies have distinguished themselves as perennial finalists, while fewer still have taken home multiple trophies in the same year. But only one company can tout itself as victor of the rigorous Overall Integrated Marketing Program category for three years running.