West Virginia University Advancement and Marketing (UAM) recently won two prestigious national awards, recognizing innovative achievement in integrated marketing communications. UAM received a gold MarCom Creative Award for its studentVideo Diariesproject and a silver Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District II Award for special event marketing (Take a Look, Mountaineer Fan Center) at the 2006 Sugar Bowl.
The MarCom award, sponsored by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals of Arlington, Texas, is the largest marketing and communication competition in the world. It is an international competition with more than 5,000 entries from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, public relations firms, design shops and freelancers.
Winners in this years competition ranged in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates.
WVU News and Information Services and TV Productions, both units within UAM , partner on the project with students. The project engages WVU students to document their lives at the University for over a year. Each student is given a video camera, training on how to use it, and mentoring throughout the documentary process.
Video diarystudents chronicle their challenges, their successes, their day-to-day learning curves and their pivotal moments. Diary segments include participation in a West Virginia wilderness adventure, research day at the state Capitol, and competition in a University step show. Students interview favorite professors or reflect on career goals and residence life. The student diaries can be accessed at http://studentdiaries.wvu.edu/
It is the third time UAM has received a gold MarCom award. In 2004 and 2005, the WVU Minute, also a joint project of NIS and TV Productions, was recognized with gold awards. The streaming video segments, recognizing success stories at the University, are posted on WVU s home page atwww.wvu.edu
UAM received the CASE award for itsTake a Lookevent marketing campaign at the WVU -Georgia Bulldogs Sugar Bowl game in January. The event leveraged the Sugar Bowls national publicity forum to highlight WVU s comparable excellence in academics, particularly its nationally-acclaimed program in forensic and investigative science.
The event program included a Fan Center, which operated Jan. 1 and 2 that integrated comprehensive traditional marketingWVU giveaways, such as blue cinch sacks sporting the popular gold Flying WV logo, face tattoos, rally rags, light-up pom-poms, candy coins, WVU mints, WVU blinking pins, Flying WV cookies andThanks, Atlantabuttons to show appreciation to Georgia residentswith substantial communication and aggressive marketing.
The Fan Center featured WVU s Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program with an actual crime scene, and a fictitiouswho done itlab drama that allowed fans to solve a mystery involving two Universitys mascots.
The forensics display at the Fan Center was the subject of a 7-minute CNN news feature that ran several times during game day. It was also a featured segment of many local and regional media outlets.
The CASE Award will be presented to UAM at the Awards Gala event during the CASE District II Conferencein New York City, Feb. 10-13, 2007.
CASE District II is headquartered in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. In addition to West Virginia, District II consists of Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Ontario.