CASE III honors Ļć½¶Ö±²„with āGrandā awards
Contact: Harriet Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.āĻć½¶Ö±²„ recently garnered five awards, including two first place honors, in this yearās Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) competition for District III.
Ļć½¶Ö±²„competed against 125 higher education institutions in nine southeastern states to bring home āGrandā awards in Magazine Improvement and in the Photography Series category.
CASE awarded the universityās Office of Public Affairs and the Ļć½¶Ö±²„Alumni Association for the 2015 redesign of Alumnus magazine under the direction of Heather Rowe, OPAās publications and digital design editor. The first place award was in the category for institutions with more than 15,000 students.
Also receiving first place honors was a photo collection, shot on site in Zambia, by Beth Wynn in Alumnus magazineās āDeep Waterā feature story. The photos and story developed when MSUās Bagley College of Engineering invited Wynn and Alumnus magazine editor Susan Lassetter to cover the Engineers Without Borders student group project of supplying potable water to the village of Simwatacheula.
Sid Salter, MSUās chief communications officer and director of the Office of Public Affairs, said, āThese awards validate the hard work and creative talents of our staff members in the Office of Public Affairs and speak well of how our efforts at advancing Ļć½¶Ö±²„ have performed in competition with peer universities across the Southeast.ā
In addition to these Grand awards, Public Affairs also received an āAward of Excellenceā for the television commercial āWe Ring True,ā created as a component of the universityās current branding campaign and now being broadcast during Ļć½¶Ö±²„sports events on SEC Network.
MSUās Office of Admissions and Scholarships also received an āAward of Excellenceā in the Recruitment Website category for last yearās site redesign. Tiffany Brady and Katie Corban, both former OAS staff members, as well as Andy Lewis of Ļć½¶Ö±²„Information Technology Services, were instrumental in the project.
Moreover, the āWe Ring Trueā print, broadcast and digital advertising won āSpecial Meritā recognition in Total Advertising Campaign. This campaign also won a āBest of Show Broadcastā award recently from the American Advertising Federation-Jackson. The advertising is part of the universityās overall branding initiative.
āWeāre all very appreciative of the support of the universityās leadership for the marketing and branding campaign and for the overwhelming support weāve received from other talented marketing and branding professionals across our campus. While weāre grateful for the recognition, itās the collaboration here on campus to work together to advance the university that is the real cause for celebration,ā said Salter.
Along with Rowe, Wynn and Lassetter, other OPA staff members making contributions to these award-winning projects include photographers Russ Houston and Megan Bean; graphic designers Eric Abbott, Hayley Gilmore and Tim Myers; marketing and communication coordinator Erin Brown; social media specialist Chase Neal; writers Allison Matthews, Zack Plair, Sasha Steinberg and Sammy McDavid; television center staff members Steve Carver, David Garraway, Mike Godwin and Hal Teasler; research editor Jim Laird; information technology coordinator Nick Wilson; WMSV radio station manager Anthony Craven; office manager Courtney Honnoll; research marketing analyst Checky Herrington; associate director Harriet Laird; and director and CCO Sid Salter.
Other offices involved in the Alumnus magazine issues submitted in the competition were the Ļć½¶Ö±²„Foundation, Bagley College of Engineering, Office of Agricultural Communications, and Agriculture and Natural Resources Marketing.
CASE is an international professional association serving educational institutions and advancement professionals in alumni relations, communications and marketing, and development. CASE District III includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.