From the Nominator

"2021 marked the 100th anniversary of insulin’s discovery at the University of Toronto and the collaborative effort that led to the development and distribution of this life-saving treatment to millions worldwide. The university saw this historic milestone as an opportunity to position U of T as a biomedical powerhouse--a reputation that began with the discovery of insulin and that has grown over the past century thanks to the many other game-changing discoveries and advances made by world-renowned researchers at U of T and our partner institutions.   

To promote this celebration, U of T led the development and implementation of an integrated marketing and communications initiative, engaging divisions across the university and external partners. This was the first time U of T launched an integrated marketing campaign to celebrate a major global discovery. A comprehensive vision, strategy, and narrative bound the multi-divisional effort together, resulting in a campaign exceeding our expectations, while creating a model for future multi-divisional marketing and communications campaigns across the university.   

The integrated campaign had two phases: the first launched in April 2021 and the second in August 2021. Paid advertising generated approximately 19.5 million impressions and saw above-industry average click-through rates on all channels. Across owned social platforms, we garnered 3.5 million impressions and more than 75,000 engagements from the 240 posts posted on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These collective results prove that our content was informative, relevant, engaging, and worth clicking through to learn more."

From the Judges

We were impressed by how comprehensive this campaign was, with not only a cross-institution approach but significant collaborations with external partners. Every facet of the campaign came across as polished with a solid attention to detail. It was significant that this campaign required input from a broad group of stakeholders. It is a communications piece that had quantified success because of input from the beginning from researchers and other partners.