Marketing department wins three ADDY awards

Wilkes University’s marketing department won three awards from the Northeastern Pennsylvania AdClub (NPAC) at the 2009 ADDY Awards.

The Northeastern Pennsylvania AdClub, a non-profit organization, is a division of the American Advertising Federation (AAF). According to the NPAC’s website, their purpose is to “promote greater effectiveness in the use of advertising as an instrument of distribution.”

The three awards were presented to Lisa Reynolds, assistant director of creative services, on February 19, 2010 at the Green Ridge Club in Scranton. The awards were given for Wilkes’s advertising campaign: “Be Colonel,” which launched around early October of 2009. 

Wilkes University partnered with 160over90, an advertising agency based out of Philadelphia, to create the “Be Colonel” campaign, which is a combination of animation, photographs, music and a narrative.

“[160over90] had the majority part in actually creating the website and the commercial,” said Reynolds. “It’s also a really big nod for them because they put in a ton of work [into the campaign].”

The ad campaign, which also featured the new Colonel mascot, has been airing on channels such as MTV and VH1 in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton markets.

“When the ADDY’s came around, we looked at the categories and thought that we had a really viable chance to win one with the campaign that was created,” said Reynolds. “We entered and were fortunate enough to win two Gold [Awards] and a Best in Show [Award.]”

The marketing department won the first Gold Award for a local 30-second television spot for the “Be Colonel” ad campaign. The other gold award was for the BeColonel.com website design.

Because the department won the two gold awards, they are automatically entered into the national AAF competition.

Some of the major players working to achieve a successful “Be Colonel” ad campaign were Reynolds; Kimberly Bower-Spence, director of marketing communications; and Craig Thomas, director of Web services for marketing communications.

The Best in Show Award was given to Wilkes University because of the overall success of the “Be Colonel” campaign.

“The Best in Show Award is given to the best creative of all the entries in the show,” said Jack Chielli, executive director of marketing communications. “The Northeastern Pennsylvania AdClub includes all of the ad agencies, the colleges, the hospitals; anybody who does a significant amount of marketing in the NEPA region.”

The winner of the best in show award has the best ad out of any company that entered in any category, according to Chielli.

Winning ADDY awards is important to Wilkes University for a number of reasons.

“This is another way for Wilkes University to show that it is a high-quality university,” said Chielli. “It [also] energizes the folks in the marketing department.”

This year, the marketing department won a few other awards including a Gold Award in Magazine for Color at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education District II.

Also, according to Chielli and Reynolds, the department was awarded three CUPPIE’s from the College and University Association of Public Relations of Pennsylvania (CUPRAP): a Gold Award in the Print Magazine category for the spring 2009 magazine, a Silver Award in the Electronic Category for the Wilkes Web-redesign and a Bronze Award in the Print-Brochure category for the health and sciences brochures.

“What you learn about advertising is that you have to be different,” said Chielli. “You have to try and stand out from the crowd.”

Chielli added that the support that he has received from the Wilkes community has been tremendous.

“The marketing department is very appreciative of the support we’ve gotten from campus,” said Chielli. “It’s very important that the faculty and the administrators have been extremely supportive of what [the marketing department] does. To know that the campus is behind you and enjoying what you’re doing makes [work] really rewarding.”