When asked to ‘Picture Yourself Here,’ students are responding positively to an award-winning marketing campaign that promotes Alfred State. A national panel of higher education marketers, graphic designers, creative directors, and advertising professionals honored the college with six awards, including two gold medals, and four bronze for advertising materials designed to attract prospective students and their families.
“While Alfred State has established a reputation for career-focused education and hands-on learning over the years, it’s no easy task to keep our message fresh and relevant to new generations. That’s why we’re so proud that our marketing communications team is being recognized for their work,” stated Deborah Goodrich, associate vice president for Enrollment Management. “It’s imperative for us to spread our message to an ever-growing audience, to let students know that Alfred State can prepare them to ‘hit the ground running®’ in the working world.”
The 32nd Annual Higher Education Advertising Awards honored Alfred State with gold medals for both the Applied Technology Student Viewbook, and for a Parents’ Calendar that utilizes variable data to tailor the printed materials to recipients. The college earned bronze medals for a television advertising series, orientation booklets, social media campaigns, and fundraising materials. In all, State University of New York (SUNY) colleges and universities received 16 awards, with six of them going to Alfred State.
Alfred State is the only public school in the state to win an award in these five categories: fundraising, calendars, orientation, social media, and television advertising. Out of all entries in this contest, only 7 percent earned a gold medal this year, and Alfred State is the only SUNY college to earn multiple gold medals.
Alfred State is unique among SUNY award winners for utilizing on-campus resources for advertising concept, writing, video editing, and graphic designs. The Marketing Communications staff performed this work without the aid of outside agencies, while the college’s Print and Mail Services team handled all printing, variable data insertion, and distribution of the winning publications.
Sponsored by the Higher Education Marketing Report, these awards started in 1986. It is the longest-running educational advertising contest in America, with thousands of entries from more than 1,000 different institutions spread across 50 states and several foreign countries.
