UC Davis Receives 23 Awards for Educational Marketing

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Pandemic Portrait, family blows bubbles
Pandemic Portrait shows the Judson family: Scott and Kristen, both ’09, and their children, children Sydney and Tanner. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis)

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, Office of Strategic Communications 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.

UC Davis received eight gold Educational Advertising Awards, including two for Aggie Experience Live! — a multiday, online program for newly admitted students and their families.

People walk under "Unfold" advertisement at airport.
Airport visitors walk under advertisement ...
"Unfold" iceberg advertisement at Sacramento Intertaional Airport
... for UC Davis’ Unfold padcast.

 

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, UC 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. UC Davis received 15 awards for advertising and eight for digital marketing.

"Aggie Experience Live!" banner for "Student Support and Campus Communities"
Aggie Experience Live! continues this year, running from March 30 to April 3.

 

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 UC 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 UC Davis’ EDUAdAwards, listed by category and award level, and further defined by subcategory:

Advertising: Gold

Campus calendar, monthly version (April), with dachshound
Strategic Communications created a new monthly calendar, smaller and downloadable for free, for home workspaces, in addition to the traditional poster size.

Advertising: Silver

Advertising: Bronze

Advertising: Merit

Sun and orange sky over city

Digital Marketing: Gold

Digital Marketing: Silver

Digital Marketing: Bronze

Digital Marketing: Merit

Two people in study carrels, socially distanced

Campus Ready social media content appears on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Media Resources

UC Davis News and Media Relations, 530-752-1930

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Secondary Categories

Unfold Podcast University

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