CEDAR CITY, Utah (Oct. 15, 2025) - The Larry H. Miller Utah Summer Games was honored with the title of 'Best Digital Media' at the 2025 National Congress of State Games Symposium in Columbus, Ohio on Oct. 14. The award accompanies a continued effort by USG to advance their media presence and use technology to connect with athletes, coaches, and sponsors.
"Our department is honored to receive this recognition from our peers with the National Congress of State Games," shared executive director Jon Oglesby. "We are grateful for the support we have received to elevate our marketing efforts, with significant support coming from partners such as Visit Cedar City/Brian Head and the Utah Office of Tourism. We have a terrific story to tell, and I'm grateful for the talented storytellers on our team who have shared the stories of impact from our programming."
This new digital marketing strategy — focused on strategic social media, website utilization, and high-quality photo content creation and distribution — yielded impressive growth in several key areas.
Social Media
In a substantial undertaking for the 2025 program year, USG has made drastic changes to increase its social media presence, including hiring Social Media Consultant Matthew Gerrish. In addition to creating a more unified and appealing graphic appearance for posts, Gerrish and the Games staff have cultivated significantly more active and engaging accounts on all social platforms.
The results of this social media rebrand are noteworthy across the board. Between January 1 and Oct 1, @lhmutahsummergames produced a 30.5% increase in Instagram followers, @UtahSummerGame1 created a 17.1% increase in X followers, and @UtahSummerGames saw a 9.3% increase in Facebook followers.
Event Coverage
With the inception of their new website in 2023, USG founded an initiative to create and gather content telling the stories of the Games through written and visual mediums. During 2025, media assistants Brynlee Clarke and Kale Nelson generated 25 post-event photo galleries, 25 post-event news releases, and the introduction of post-game press conferences.
The event-coverage team also completed a two-year mission of acquiring photo and video assets for every sport in the Games, setting the organization up to succeed in future social media and storytelling endeavors.
Email Marketing
As part of a designated effort to digitally connect with coaches and athletes, USG has also developed an email outreach strategy, spearheaded by Event and Marketing Coordinator Marshall Smith.
The new system has greatly surpassed expectations, with the average click-through rate of 13% roughly tripling the industry standard of 2-5%. Email open rates averaged about 65%, which is nearly 12 points above the average for hobbies, 32 points above entertainment and events, and 27 points above health and fitness, according to ActiveCampaign.com.
National Congress of State Games
Hosted by the National Congress of State Games, the State Games of America is an Olympic-style event featuring competition between State Games medal winners from across the nation. There are currently 30 states conducting or organizing statewide sports festivals known as State Games.
Larry H. Miller Utah Summer Games and Southern Utah University will host the 2030 State Games of America in Salt Lake City.
