The Portland State Athletics Marketing Department won four awards at the annual NACMA (National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators) convention for promotion of the Viking athletics program.
The marketing department, led by Assistant Athletic Director of Marketing Kenny Dow, won two gold medals for Static Marketing Display, and for Sales Piece. Silver medals were received for Social Media Marketing and Promotional Video.
Dow's marketing team includes Beth Connell (KP Sports), Weronika Budak, Kenny Katz, Nathan Merlin, Gianna Hedin, Derek Harguth, AC Nguyen, and Keahi Ho. The Marketing Team has now won a total of 13 National Marketing Awards in the past two years - the most of any school in the region and the Big Sky Conference.
The award winning marketing pieces:
Sales Piece (Football Season Ticket Competition): Piece created in partnership with Beth Connell of KP Sports and John Jendritza of Glow Creative.
This sales piece was used as a piece for our current season ticket holders to go out into the community to try and sell new season tickets to their friends, co-workers, etc. The competition was held during the month of July 2012. The winner of the competition received a trip with the football team to Seattle, WA in September as the Viks took on the Washington Huskies. The results of the campaign were that we sold 114 new season tickets for the 2012 season.
Static Display Ad (Dorm Window Graphics): Produced in Partnership with John Jendritza of Glow Creative.
Interactive Social Media Program (Instagram Launch & Photo Contest) – Partnership with Christian Aniciete in UComm: This promotion also won a Bronze Award from CASE, and two SoMe Awards (Best Social Utilization within a mobile centric campaign or application; and Best Social efforts within an in-house marketing team)
(The SoMe Awards (Social Media) honors the best social media campaigns by marketing agencies, in-house teams and freelancers from across the Unites States. Now in this 5th year, the awards are an opportunity for those to celebrate accomplishments made to help themselves or their clients in the ever growing world of social media.)
On September 16, Portland State University (PSU) launched its official presence on the popular photo-sharing social network, Instagram, to engage with current and prospective students, alumni, faculty, staff, and the community. PSU's Instagram site features an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look into campus life at PSU such as move-in day and a career fair. In partnership with the Athletics office, PSU ran a photo contest to coincide with this year's “Portland State of Mind,” a 2-week series of events that opened PSU's doors to the community. Contest participants were encouraged to show what “Portland State of Mind” means to them by tagging their photos with PSOM as well as PortlandState and #GoViks. The first 100 submissions won an exclusive Portland State of Mind T-Shirt and all submissions were automatically entered to win three grand prizes including an Apple iPod Touch.
By the end of the contest entry period on October 14, PSU received over 600 photos. The five finalists' photos to PSU's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter sites and the top three entries ultimately with the most combined “likes” by October 25 won the top grand prizes.
The overall goal of this social media campaign was to launch PSU's new Instagram social media platform on campus. Quantitatively, PSU's University Communications and Athletics offices set the goal of 100 submissions. In return, the first 100 participants were guaranteed to win a free PSU T-Shirt. Qualitatively, both offices hoped that the campaign would stimulate campus pride and create an even greater affinity with PSU. The social media campaign was a major success with PSU's Instagram site growing in following from 0 to nearly 500 in a month. In addition, with over 600 photos submitted and tagged #PSOM, the campaign successfully raised awareness about PSU's annual celebration, “Portland State of Mind.” By the end of the photo contest period, over 3,000 photos were uploaded that were tagged PortlandState and GoViks combined. During the voting period, when fans selected the top three winners out of the five finalists, the contest generated over 1,200 “likes” on PSU's Facebook and Instagram sites combined, increasing traffic to the respective sites significantly.
Video Promotion (Viking Basketball Lip Dub): Produced and Edited by Kenny Katz Viking Marketing Intern
