“It is always enjoyable to work with students, faculty and staff on projects for marketing and communications—our vibrant community is what makes Etown so special!” Executive Director of Marketing and Communications Keri Straub said.
The Elizabethtown College Office of Marketing and Communications (OMC) has recently been recognized in The Ninth Annual Education Digital Marketing (EDM) awards. This competition aims to promote exceptional digital content, media and educational communications. Over 1,000 media entries are submitted each year from schools around the country, and then judged by multiple professionals in education, marketing, creative writing and other communication professions.
The school’s OMC department was one out of 73 institutions awarded with a bronze recognition. They received two bronze achievements, one for a digital video called “Flock to the Polls” and another for a Social Media Content Campaign within the Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP) program. “Flock to the Polls” was a short video of about two minutes that was meant to inspire students to vote during the November 2020 election. The Social Media Content Campaign was made to support the school’s faculty and students who were participating in independent research projects on campus in the summer of 2021.
For their first entry, the OMC team wanted to create a campaign video they believed would resonate with their audience as well as highlight some of the positive aspects of the College. By brainstorming and strategizing together, the students and faculty created an expertly crafted video that helped spread awareness of the election and reasons why people might exercise their right to vote. They interviewed multiple students and staff about voting, why they wanted to vote and their experiences with the polls. Emphasis was placed on how every vote counted towards a change in people’s futures and raising the voices of the people. Their signature phrase, “Flock to the Polls,” is both a reference to the College’s mascot (the Blue Jay) and a call to action from the people who so passionately worked on this piece.
For their media campaign in the SCARP series, the team planned out whole campaigns for every individual social channel that was being held at the time. The SCARP program at Etown College allows for students to gain valuable experience with real-world research projects, with multiple student and faculty partnerships taking place during the summer months. Their goal in this project was to focus on making the promotion as exciting to their followers as possible, which showed the power of media engagement.
Upon receiving the news of the awards, Executive Director Keri Straub expressed pride in how the College had earned the recognition, and how much hard work and strategy went on behind the scenes. It was thanks to the team’s highly productive and engaging attitudes that they were able to have this victory. The students and other faculty members involved were also happily celebrating the achievement, with the well wishes and support of their college campus community.
Of course, no great award is earned without at least a little bit of struggle. The team often remarked about how they could always use more time for brainstorming and strategizing, which was sometimes hard to do during the time constraints of the competition and in between everybody’s personal calendars. However, that struggle became part of the learning process for them as they navigated through tough schedules. In the end, those involved found themselves with better multi-tasking skills and better knowledge for how to make the most of unfavorable situations.
“As a team, being able to conceptualize, implement and execute the process of a new campaign is always amazing to have it come to fruition,” Straub said.
