Bank marketing may not be sexy, but that’s okay: It’s important. So important, in fact, that the New England Financial Marketing Association (NEFMA) managed to turn out nearly 200 marketing professionals from New England banks and credit unions for its very first awards gala in late September.

The event was in the works for more than a year, according to Patti Mitchell, chair of NEFMA’s awards committee and formerly of Country Bank. Former NEFMA presidents and members put their heads together to formulate the criteria and categories, and enlisted Agility Resources to help plan and organize the event.

A sister organization of financial marketers from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey judged more than 120 entries.

“Part of the criteria was results, so it’s not a beauty contest, like a lot of award shows are,” said Bill DeWitt, a partner at HCC Marketing. “What was the objective? What was the strategy? What were the results? It’s not doing beautiful things for the sake of doing beautiful things, but doing smart things because they work.”

Awards categories included loan campaigns, service, brand, public relations and financial education. NEFMA also divided the awards into separate asset classes, DeWitt said, so a bank with $500 million in assets wouldn’t be competing with a bank with $2 billion.

Before the event, Mitchell said that she was particularly excited to see that Country Bank had won the gold in the latter category, but she added, “It’s a camaraderie. It’s not a competition between Bank A and Bank B. We’re friends, and we’re happy for one another.”

“I think it’s the most overlooked division of any bank or credit union. Marketing is what gets our brand and our message and our products out there, so shedding some light on what all the credit unions and banks do is phenomenal,” said Lisa Griffin, the senior vice president, chief retail banking officer and director of marketing at Eastern Savings Bank.

“Having been on the agency side and the bank side, the financial services category is one of those where people do their time, but then they want to move onto something sexier like cars or fashion or sneakers,” DeWitt mused. “But I think bank marketing is great because at the end of the day, we help people make better financial decisions. We get them a first house, we get them a better car, we get them an education. What we do matters to people.”

NEFMA Award Winners

To see all of the award winners, click here.