Portland State Athletics, alongside Sport Oregon, took home a "Best of" award from the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) last week. Portland State and Sport Oregon received the gold medal for Group II in the Brand Management Viral Social Media Initiative for the video of President Ann Cudd working out with the Portland State football team.
Sport Oregon and Portland State athletics staff worked together to produce the video, with
ReelNative Films shooting and editing. Sport Oregon published the video on Oct. 24 across X (formerly twitter), Instagram and YouTube, inviting the Portland State athletics football and main accounts to collaborate on the post where appropriate.
The response online was immediate. ESPN re-posted the video on their Instagram and TikTok accounts. Fox College Football re-posted it on X, Instagram and TikTok. The overwhelming sentiment was positive. ESPN's caption for the video was "Portland State President gets it". The NFL replied to the initial post on X from Sport Oregon with "office hours hit different with President Cudd".
It's estimated that the video reached 21.11 million people, as of November 2023. Its reach resulted in the equivalent of $40,000 worth of advertising.
NACMA's "Best Of' awards, presented by Old Hat, recognize collegiate athletic departments in five different categories within revenue generation, brand management, fan development and best in class. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in each category, while schools are divided into Groups I, II and III based on size of the departments.
