Marketing & Communications Staff Honored by Higher Education Peers
Several members of Pacific University’s Marketing & Communications team have been recognized by their peers in higher education for outstanding work on behalf of the university.
Three products of the MarCom Department were cited for excellence at the annual District VIII Conference of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education held in Seattle Feb. 4-6.
In the Student Recruitment Video category, the “Top 15 Greatest Things about Pacific University” received a Silver (2nd place). Team members responsible for the video include multimedia manager Parrish Evans, senior writer Jenni Luckett and digital coordinator Sarah Creedican. Also contributing to the project was alumnus David Panton.
“The goal of the video was to share the history, tradition and community of Pacific University in a short, entertaining recruitment video,” Evans said. “We wanted to steer away from the 2 1/2-minute video of campus scenes, paired with an institutional voiceover and instead present a fun video that highlighted Pacific’s uniqueness.”
Pacific’s increased presence on social media also received praise. “Faculty Friday,” a weekly profile of a Pacific professor created by Creedican with assistance from Evans and associate vice president Tammy Spencer, received a Bronze (3rd) in the Social Media Programs and Projects category.
“Faculty Friday is a project we started to benefit and engage audiences from across the university, including current and prospective students, parents, faculty and alumni,” Creedican said. “Students get excited about their current or future professor's accomplishments, alumni reminisce about old times at Pacific and faculty feel valued and appreciated.”
The university’s new website also earned acclaim by garnering a Bronze in the Overall Institutional Website category. The new site carefully targets users through an audience-based organization system, uses a responsive design to serve mobile and tablet users, and makes use of a content management system to provide rich storytelling and multimedia opportunities to share Pacific’s story.
Principal team members responsible for the new site are Spencer, web development manager Ben Griffin, web coordinator Kallen Dewey Kentner, Luckett, Creedican and Evans.
“The primary goal of the new website is to support student recruitment and retention through a user-centered online experience that evokes the uniquely personal Pacific University experience and brand,” Spencer said. “The new site, built on a robust content management system, allows us to customize our content, including stories and videos, to feed to specifically targeted pages throughout the site, and for enhanced communication specific to current students and employees.”
CASE District VIII includes member universities and colleges in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, as well as seven Canadian provinces.