AMTA Wins APEX Awards

APEX Awards

The American Massage Therapy Association has had an exciting year of growth and success! We are pleased to announce that the association has won the following APEX Awards for excellence in communications. 

  • Grand Award: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic with Massage Therapy Advocacy Campaign
  • Award of Excellence: Massage Therapy Journal – 2018 Fall Issue 
  • Award of Excellence: 75th Anniversary Campaign 

The 31st Annual APEX Awards are a competition for publishers, editors, writers and designers. Businesses, non-profits, agencies and freelance communicators can enter these awards to showcase their best writing, publications, campaigns, programs, design and media. The APEX Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence.

Advocacy Campaign: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic with Massage Therapy Wins APEX Grand Award

AMTA has been recognized with an APEX Grand Award in the category of Health & Medical Campaigns, Programs & Plans. This is the highest recognition APEX judges can present.

AMTA’s Advocacy Campaign: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic with Massage Therapy focused on reaching out to legislators, insurance companies and collaborators in the healthcare profession to discuss the current science behind massage as an alternative to opioids to manage pain.

This integrated campaign included an economic modeling analysis which indicated that as many as 5 million people in the U.S. could potentially benefit from massage therapy, while reducing the number of people with opioid addiction disorder by over 111,000 per year.  The following elements were part of this successful campaign:

  • AMTA published a 45-page report and educational tool “Massage Therapy in Integrative Care & Pain Management”
  • An opioids web landing page (serving as a central location for housing updates on campaign initiatives). 
  • AMTA talked with key pain organizations and participated in national healthcare panels.
  • AMTA wrote to 700 Medicare Advantage programs encouraging them to work toward including massage therapy for pain management. 
  • Multiple press releases were issued to national consumer, business and healthcare media on research showing massage therapy as an alternative to opioids, reaching 80 million people.

Massage Therapy Journal Wins APEX Award of Excellence 

The Massage Therapy Journal Fall 2018 issue has earned an Award of Excellence in the category of Magazines, Journals & Tabloids – Custom Published. This MTJ issue featured a Veterans and Massage Therapy cover story. 

The Massage Therapy Journal is AMTA’s quarterly publication which provides members the information they need to stay competitive in the massage therapy profession. From research-based techniques to self-care practices to work environments, Massage Therapy Journal is the go-to publication for massage therapists. 

AMTA 75th Anniversary Campaign Wins APEX Award of Excellence 

AMTA’s promotional anniversary campaign won an APEX Award of Excellence in the Special Purpose Campaigns, Programs & Plans category. 

The 75th anniversary campaign focused on celebrating our members as leaders in health and wellness over the past 75 years. This integrated effort included a custom logo and tagline “75 Years Strong”, a commemorative issue of Massage Therapy Journal, a website feature, a nationwide advertising campaign, and montage video highlighting members. Thank you to everyone who joined us this last summer to celebrate our 75th Anniversary at our annual convention in Washington, D.C.! 

Related Resources 

Massage Therapy in Integrative Care & Pain Management 

Massage Therapy as an Alternative to Opioids 

Research Roundup: Massage Can Reduce the Cost of the Opioid Crisis