VHB’s Fox Hill Pursuit Wins National SMPS Marketing Award

The Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) recognized VHB's marketing team with a national Award of Merit in the Project Pursuit-Mixed Media category of its Marketing Communications Awards program. The team's winning submission featured a proposal and interactive ArcGIS StoryMap developed for the City of Hampton's Fox Hill Watershed Management Plan, combining compelling storytelling, visual communication, and technical knowledge.

VHB began preparing for the opportunity well before the proposal was due, taking time to understand what the Fox Hill community needed most. The team conducted extensive research, visited the site, and also built an interactive ArcGIS StoryMap that brought Fox Hill's flooding and sea-level rise challenges to life for the selection committee. Together, those efforts helped communicate the community's needs for a resilient future.

"From the beginning, our team knew this opportunity would require more than a great proposal," said Jen McGovern, VHB Senior Regional Marketing Manager. "We challenged ourselves to dig deeper, learn everything we could about the community, and create something that would reflect its unique challenges and priorities. Watching our marketing and technical teams come together around that vision was incredibly rewarding, and it's exciting to see that work recognized at the national level."

The award is a reminder of how marketing can help communicate ideas and inspire action. By pairing thoughtful strategy and authentic storytelling with innovative technology and close collaboration with technical team members, VHB's marketers helped craft a pursuit that reflected the City's goals and showed a genuine understanding of the Fox Hill community. That momentum continues to shape how VHB approaches coastal resilience, watershed planning, and community-focused work across the region.

Learn more about our coastal engineering and resiliency experience at VHB.