Individual Public Relations and Community Relations Projects

2010 Circle of Excellence Awards Program
Judges Report

Three of the winners in this category supported worthwhile university projects that addressed the needs of people living in their areas. The fourth winner didn't do anything new -- all schools informed their students about H1N1 flu -- it just did it better in a clever public awareness campaign.

The Grand Gold Winner was Bunker Hill Community College, which identified a need and desire among shift workers to return to college but who had trouble finding a convenient time to do so. Bunker Hill hit on the idea of offering midnight classes and came up with a catchy slogan - "Burning the Midnight Oil" - complete with graphics of a lit oil lamp atop a stack of books. The real genius of this campaign was how word was spread of the new classes. School representatives went to where the shift workers were employed -- police stations, fire houses, hospitals, the airport -- and handed them flyers. They blanketed the Boston area with posters and placed ads on subways, late-night radio and in a local tabloid. They even advertised "free coffee" for their students. When the media learned of these efforts through two separate press releases that targeted both local and national media, the story took off. Everyone from The New York Times to NPR to the AP wire service ran stories about the classes, and how it filled a niche that no one before had identified. The final topper - they spent only $13,000 on the initial project. Well-conceived and well-executed.

The Gold Winner was the Virginia Community College System's "Great Expectations" campaign, an appropriate takeoff on the Dickens novel in that it targeted foster youth who were aging out of the system and let them know that community college was a viable option for them. And that is what set this entry apart - the use of the community college system to address a societal need. More than a quarter of the youth aging out of the Virginia foster care system wind up in jail within two years of leaving the system and more than half will become homeless or unstably housed. Only two percent go on to earn a college degree, compared to 28 percent of the general population. Great Expectations offered coaching and mentoring to these students statewide so they could navigate the admissions process. Even though there was nothing terribly out of the ordinary about the tactics or the materials, the campaign worked. The number of foster youth who participated in the program more than doubled - from 100 to more than 240 - and the number of programs around the state grew to 12. It also garnered dozens of local and national stories. And, perhaps most important in these difficult economic times, the program has secured more than $4 million in funding, including major donations and grants.

The Silver Award went to Syracuse University, which went to great lengths to inform its students of the dangers of H1N1 and steps they should take to avoid the flu. The campaign included catchy posters, videos, emails, dining tabletop messages and other forms of outreach, all built around the Syracuse mascot, Otto the Orange. Again the messages weren't that different than what other colleges produced - in fact, it's clear that much of the information is taken from the CDC's website - but it is presented in a clever way sure to attract the attention of students.

The Bronze Award winner was Dalhousie University, for its efforts to inform high school students in the region about its new Environment, Sustainability and Society (ESS) program - and to then get them to enroll. Facing a shrinking pool of high school grads locally and increased competition across Canada, the ESS program was a critical part of Dalhousie's recruitment strategy. The campaign itself was not all that unusual, but the way in which it was carried out was first-rate. All of the campaign materials - including ads, videos, Facebook and web pages and brochures - were effective in getting across the message. Public events, including discussions and a community launch, also brought attention to the effort, as did media stories across Canada. The bottom line is the campaign worked. The goal was to attract a minimum of 175 students to the first ESS class; in fact, they ended up with 315 students in the original class. Nice work.