Maryland’s alcoholic beverage industry operates within a three-tier regulatory structure involving manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, regulators, and numerous licensing and compliance requirements. For people outside the system, the relationships between those groups can be difficult to understand.
The challenge was to develop an educational webinar series that could explain the system accurately without relying on dense regulatory language. The content also needed to work for audiences with very different levels of familiarity, from entrepreneurs and prospective licensees to established industry professionals, policymakers, and members of the public.
Beyond the live webinars, the project needed a consistent visual and editorial system that could support presentation slides, promotional graphics, recorded content, and related video storytelling.
The goal was to create an accessible public education series that explained how Maryland’s alcoholic beverage system works, clarified ATCC’s regulatory role, and showed how the different tiers of the industry connect.
The webinar series production also needed to generate useful evergreen content. Recorded presentations, supporting graphics, and companion videos could continue educating audiences after the live events while giving ATCC a reusable communications resource for future outreach.
The series was developed for current and prospective alcohol industry licensees, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, industry partners, policymakers, and members of the public interested in understanding Maryland’s alcoholic beverage system.
Because audience knowledge varied significantly, the presentations had to establish enough context for newcomers while remaining useful and credible for people already working within the industry. Clear visual explanations and real-world examples helped bridge that gap.
The project was developed as an integrated public education campaign rather than a collection of stand-alone webinars. Work began with identifying the information each session needed to communicate and organizing complex subject matter into a sequence audiences could follow.
The production process covered concept development, webinar structure, scripting support, presentation design, promotional graphics, live webinar production, recording, editing, and distribution. Companion profile videos were also filmed with Maryland business owners, extending the webinar series production beyond the presentations themselves and connecting regulatory information with real businesses operating within the system.
Keeping those elements under one coordinated creative direction allowed the presentation slides, videos, graphics, and promotional materials to function as parts of the same communications system.
The visual direction was designed to make regulatory information feel contemporary and approachable while maintaining the credibility expected of a state agency. Presentation slides used clear hierarchy, photography, diagrams, concise text, and consistent graphic treatments to help presenters communicate complicated ideas visually.
The business-profile videos introduced a more personal storytelling component. Interviews and environmental footage placed viewers inside Maryland businesses and gave owners an opportunity to describe their experiences in their own voices.
Presentation design, webinar branding, promotional graphics, video editing, titles, and supporting visual assets were developed together so the series maintained a recognizable identity across live programming, recorded video, and digital promotion.
The completed series established a reusable public education resource combining webinars, presentation design, video storytelling, and supporting communications materials. Instead of presenting Maryland’s three-tier system only through regulatory language, the campaign paired clear explanations with visual storytelling and real-world business perspectives.
The work received First Place in the Educational or Instructional Video category at the National Association of Government Communicators Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Awards, providing external recognition for the project’s approach to public-sector education and visual communication.
“The comprehensive nature of this entry is impressive, especially when most of the work was done by one person. The stories are well told — video, audio, pacing, writing and overall editing.”
National Association of Government Communicators
