The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) bestowed grand champion status on two initiatives led by the offices of University Communications and Alumni Affairs in the Division of University Advancement. The projects were chosen the best from among more than 1,000 competing entries.
The video “Big Ideas, Big Future” and Niner Connection, a redesigned online community for UNC Charlotte alumni, were named Grand Award winners during the recent CASE District III conference in Nashville.
“Big Ideas, Big Future” is a video that welcomed the UNC system Board of Governors to Charlotte last year for its first meetings here since 1972. It was a highlight at the board's opening reception at UNC Charlotte Center City in February 2015. The video has been viewed more than 17,000 times on YouTube and has been used in many venues since the BOG meeting.
"The video, which illustrated the University’s strong ties to the city and region, was one piece of a larger package of integrated communications that reinforced the story of an institution that's truly a part of the fabric of Charlotte," said University Communications Executive Director Stephen Ward. "Brad Bowen did a great job producing the piece, and the rest of the UCOMM team really lit it up across our many channels, leading to one of the fastest-rising view counts of all of our videos.”
Finishing second in the CASE District III competition's marketing and branding category was Duke University, with a video on the school's engineering program. Earlier this year, “Big Ideas, Big Future” earned a Gold MarCom Award.
UNC Charlotte's Alumni Affairs Office also brought home a Grand Award for Niner Connection.
“Our goal with Niner Connection was to create a new online community that allowed our alumni to use personal accounts to accomplish a number of tasks, such as registering for events and updating their alumni information,” said Jenny Jones, executive director of alumni affairs. “Through Niner Connection, we’ve created specific website roles assigned to different alumni groups so that only certain groups can access specific content. This has allowed us to engage in more effective direct marketing to alumni groups and to create private pages that only alumni can access. Thus far, alumni response have been extremely complimentary of the new design, and our event registrations have been easier to manage from both the user and administrative aspect.”
CASE is the largest, international association for the thousands of professionals in the fields of higher education communications, alumni relations and development. District III membership includes colleges and universities from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.