Contact: Harriet Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University recently garnered five awards, including two first place honors, in this year’s Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) competition for District III.
MSU competed against 125 higher education institutions in nine southeastern states to bring home “Grand” awards in Magazine Improvement and in the Photography Series category.
CASE awarded the university’s Office of Public Affairs and the MSU Alumni Association for the 2015 redesign of Alumnus magazine under the direction of Heather Rowe, OPA’s 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 magazine’s “Deep Water” feature story. The photos and story developed when MSU’s 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, MSU’s chief communications officer and director of the Office of Public Affairs, said, “These 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 Mississippi State University have performed in competition with peer universities across the Southeast.”
In addition to these Grand awards, Public Affairs also received an “Award of Excellence” for the television commercial “We Ring True,” created as a component of the university’s current branding campaign and now being broadcast during MSU sports events on SEC Network.
MSU’s Office of Admissions and Scholarships also received an “Award of Excellence” in the Recruitment Website category for last year’s site redesign. Tiffany Brady and Katie Corban, both former OAS staff members, as well as Andy Lewis of MSU Information Technology Services, were instrumental in the project.
Moreover, the “We Ring True” print, broadcast and digital advertising won “Special Merit” recognition in Total Advertising Campaign. This campaign also won a “Best of Show Broadcast” award recently from the American Advertising Federation-Jackson. The advertising is part of the university’s overall branding initiative.
“We’re all very appreciative of the support of the university’s leadership for the marketing and branding campaign and for the overwhelming support we’ve received from other talented marketing and branding professionals across our campus. While we’re grateful for the recognition, it’s the collaboration here on campus to work together to advance the university that is the real cause for celebration,” 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 MSU 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.