Higher Ed Marketing Report recently bestowed an Educational Advertising Merit Award to UNC Charlotte’s Office of University Communications for the 49er Democracy Experience; the honor was in the category of Total Public Relations Program.
The 49er Democracy Experience was a University-wide civic initiative related to the 2012 presidential convention held in the Queen City. UNC Charlotte worked in collaboration with other area colleges, universities and community partners to offer a number of forums, seminars, for-credit classes, internships and other volunteer experiences.
As part of the nearly year-long PR campaign, a 49er Democracy Experience website was developed; it included a list of faculty experts who served as resources for journalists who attended the convention. UNC Charlotte faculty members provided commentary for hundreds of news stories and media broadcasts. During the convention, University communications also produced three daily reports for Inside UNC Charlotte that documented UNC Charlotte students, faculty and staff involvement in this unique opportunity.
“Being the largest public university in the region, UNC Charlotte capitalized on the media attention surrounding the presidential nominating convention to position the University as the state’s urban research institution,” said Stephen Ward, executive director of University communications. “Our PR efforts related to the 49er Democracy Experience were a collaborative, integrated effort that utilized multiple formats – from traditional printed media kits to the Web to broadcast video. We are proud to be recognized by Higher Ed Marketing Report.”
The Educational Advertising Awards is the largest educational advertising awards competition in the country. This year, close to 3,000 entries were received from more than 1,000 colleges, universities and secondary schools from all 50 states and several foreign countries. Award judges consisted of national panel of higher education marketers, advertising creative directors, marketing and advertising professionals and the editorial board of Higher Education Marketing Report.