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.

 

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! 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

• Brand Communications Guide Site Refresh — Website Refresh
• Campus Calendars 2020-21 — Calendar
• Recruitment 2020 Digital Ads — Online Display Ad
• Unfold Podcast, Season 2 (climate change) — Podcasts
• Aggie Experience Live! — Special Event
• Unfold Podcast Airport Ads, Season 2 — Advertising Industry Self-Promotion Out-of-Home

Advertising: Silver

• Find Your UC Davis Community (video, above) — Equality and Diversity Promotion
• Outgrow the Expected Internal Launch — Integrated Marketing Campaign
• 2020 Recruitment Campaign — Total Recruitment Package
• Science & Climate Blog: What Can I Do About Climate Change? — Blog Sites
• COVID-19 Webpages — COVID Response Materials

Advertising: Bronze

• Instagram Live Campus Tours — Social Media Content
• Dateline Newsletter Redesign — Newsletter

Advertising: Merit

• Becoming Arizona (Science & Climate series) — Blog Sites
• UC Davis Magazine — Publication/External

Digital Marketing: Gold

• Pandemic Portraits — COVID Response
• Aggie Experience Live! — New Media Content, gold

Digital Marketing: Silver

• Brand Communications Guide Site Refresh — Institutional Website Update/Refresh

Digital Marketing: Bronze

• Instagram Live Campus Tours — Social Media Content-Single

Digital Marketing: Merit

• Humanizing Deportation — Digital Video Over 2 Minutes
• Thursday Thoughts by Chancellor May — Social Media Content-Campaign
• UC Davis LIVE: COVID-19 — Social Media Content-Single
• Campus Ready Social Media Content — COVID Response