Best of OKC: How Voting Works & How to Win

Two ballots, one metro: Best of OKC vs. the Oklahoman's Community's Choice

Oklahoma City runs two separate best-of ballots in the same calendar year, and mixing them up is the single most common mistake a local business makes. Best of OKC belongs to the Oklahoma Gazette, has run since 1985, and lives at community.okgazette.com/oklahoma/BestOf. The Oklahoman's Community's Choice Awards is a different program entirely, built on Gannett's YourChoiceAwards platform and run by the daily paper, not the alt-weekly.

Neither one licenses the other's name. Neither shares a voting window. A restaurant that wins its Best of OKC category in spring says nothing about how it will do on the Oklahoman's ballot later that year; they're graded by different readerships, on different sites, under different rules.

So which one should a business chase first? If the goal is metro-wide reach and a badge with genuine four-decade history behind it, Best of OKC is the deeper credential. A business chasing both should never blend the two names into one campaign message. "Vote for us in Oklahoma City's best-of" is vague enough to confuse readers about which ballot you mean. For other Oklahoma contests worth tracking alongside this one, see the Oklahoma contest hub.

What Best of OKC actually is, and why the 1985 start date matters

Best of OKC is the Oklahoma Gazette's annual readers-choice program for Oklahoma City metro businesses. No pay-to-play placement, more than 100 categories, and a ballot that has run continuously since 1985: 40-plus years, which makes it the oldest reader poll operating in this metro today. Most local best-of contests don't survive four decades. This one has become part of how OKC businesses market themselves precisely because it's outlasted the alternatives.

Category fit is the decision that actually moves the needle, more than any promotional tactic. A business shouldn't pick the broadest-sounding group. Pick the one where existing customers recognize the listing instantly and vote without pausing to guess the subcategory. In a metro this size, suburb identity and category identity tend to overlap more than people expect. Restaurants and bars weighing which subcategory fits can cross-reference the restaurant vote campaign guide before locking in a listing.

When Best of OKC opens, closes, and publishes results

Best of OKC runs on an annual cycle. Results land in the Gazette's dedicated print and online Best of OKC issue each year. This page doesn't fix an exact open or close date for the current cycle; that detail lives on the active ballot, not in a static guide. Confirm it there before buying ads, ordering QR table cards, or scheduling a final-day push.

Because there's no separate finalist-narrowing round on record, the smart move is to drive direct votes to the correct category from day one. Don't wait for a nomination phase that this ballot doesn't appear to run.

Reaching Edmond, Norman, Bricktown, and the rest of the metro

One ballot, many identities. Edmond votes differently than Bricktown, and a campaign built around a single generic "Oklahoma City" appeal usually underperforms one that speaks to where the customer actually lives.

Tulsa runs its own parallel contests, TulsaPeople A-List and the Tulsa World Readers' Choice, but those serve a different metro entirely and shouldn't factor into an OKC plan. Oklahoma City also has its own Oklahoman Athlete of the Week fan vote, a sports-side ballot from the same daily paper behind Community's Choice. Different vertical, worth knowing it exists, nothing to do with business categories.

Running a compliant campaign without guessing at the rules

No pay-to-play means the Gazette itself isn't selling placement, but it says nothing about how a business should promote its own listing. The standard is straightforward: make voting easy for people who already know the business, and skip anything that reads as manufactured.

That means no fake accounts. No scripted voting. No "we're winning" claims before results post. And no confusing the ballot with the Oklahoman's separate program in your marketing copy, since customers checking your claim will land on the wrong page if you do. For a general primer on what counts as legitimate outreach versus what gets flagged, buying votes online safely covers the line in more detail.

• Email and SMS lists reach people who already have a reason to vote. Use them first, not last.
• In-store QR codes should point at the live ballot, checked after every category update, not a saved link from last cycle.
• Staff mentions work as an optional nudge at checkout. Pressure backfires; a light ask doesn't.

Businesses running several public business award votes at once, not just Best of OKC, should keep category names and ballot links consistent across every channel. A mismatched link is the fastest way to lose a vote that would have otherwise counted. For a broader campaign framework, the best business award voting guide covers planning beyond this specific ballot. The general vote-buying guide is the right starting point for a business new to any of this.

Who has won Best of OKC?

This page names no specific winners. That's deliberate. Old PDFs, plaques, and reseller pages circulate best-of results long after they stop being accurate, and the only trustworthy source is the Gazette's own published result for the exact year and category in question.

Checking a competitor's claim? Record the year, category, and publication status before repeating it anywhere. Promoting your own result? Precision beats volume: "Best of OKC 2026 winner, [official category]" reads as credible. A vague "Oklahoma City's best" line, with no category attached, does not, and it can look dishonest if a customer goes looking for the source and can't find it.

The same rule applies to any paid promotion involved. A service can help with reminders, landing pages, QR instructions, and reaching real voters. It cannot invent a result, and shouldn't promise one. Forty-plus years of local credibility is worth more than a claim that doesn't survive a five-second fact-check. General vote package pricing is available if a business wants to compare promotion costs before the next cycle opens.