Quick Summary
- Strategic Communications honored for podcasts, videos and advertising
- Aggie Experience Live! online program for new students earns two golds
- Pandemic Portraits, social media posts earn awards for COVID-19 response
The University of California, Davis, recently received 23 awards in a national competition for educational advertising and digital marketing. The awards recognize the unit’s continued creativity in promoting the university’s mission, while also developing new content in response to the pandemic.
51ԹϺ Davis received eight gold Educational Advertising Awards, including two for Aggie Experience Live! — a multiday, online program for newly admitted students and their families.
Golds also went to Pandemic Portraits, showing faculty, staff, students and alumni (like the Judson family in photo at top of page) during the pandemic lockdown; digital ads for student recruitment 2020; and the Unfold podcast’s Season 2, on climate change (and accompanying advertisements at Sacramento International Airport).
“These awards are especially meaningful after a year when the demands for sustained pandemic communications and reaching broader audiences were stronger than ever,” said Dana Topousis, 51ԹϺ Davis’ chief marketing and communications officer. “Throughout it all, the team here in the Office of Strategic Communications once again showed their ability to be creative, innovative and nimble.
“I’m grateful to our peers across the nation for recognizing and honoring this talented team.”
More than 2,000 entries came in for the 2021 competition, comprising the 36th year of advertising awards and the eighth year of digital marketing awards. 51ԹϺ Davis received 15 awards for advertising and eight for digital marketing.
Aggie Experience Live! scored gold in advertising (as a special event) and digital marketing (as new content). It was special and new because of the pandemic, when holding the traditional Decision 51ԹϺ Davis, an in-person event, became impossible. So, the Strategic Communications team and its campus partners quickly assembled presenters and panels and video content for an online experience, complete with questions and answers.
Here are all of 51ԹϺ Davis’ EDUAdAwards, listed by category and award level, and further defined by subcategory:
Advertising: Gold
- — Website Refresh
- Campus Calendars 2020-21 — Calendar
- — Online Display Ad
- (climate change) — Podcasts
- — Special Event
- — Advertising Industry Self-Promotion Out-of-Home
Advertising: Silver
- (video, above) — Equality and Diversity Promotion
- — Integrated Marketing Campaign
- — Total Recruitment Package
- — Blog Sites
- COVID-19 Webpages — COVID Response Materials
Advertising: Bronze
- — Social Media Content
- — Newsletter
Advertising: Merit
- (Science & Climate series) — Blog Sites
- — Publication/External
Digital Marketing: Gold
- — COVID Response
- — New Media Content, gold
Digital Marketing: Silver
- — Institutional Website Update/Refresh
Digital Marketing: Bronze
- — Social Media Content-Single
Digital Marketing: Merit
Campus Ready social media content appears on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
- — Digital Video Over 2 Minutes
- — Social Media Content-Campaign
- — Social Media Content-Single
- — COVID Response
Media Resources
51ԹϺ Davis News and Media Relations, 530-752-1930