University Communications wins platinum, gold, silver

Using humor to break through the noise of traditional higher education marketing campaigns continues to net Central Michigan University’s University “We Do” brand campaign awards, this time in national competitions.

CMU’s brand campaign won two platinum 2024 Hermes Creative Awards and two Silver Stevie Awards from The American Business Awards. One of the Stevie judges cited the campaign’s creative way of reaching its target audience.

“I love everything about this,” the judge wrote. “Breaking through the noise using knowledge of your audience, focusing on humor for what can be a typically-serious topic, it all worked so well together and got great results. Nice job!”

The Silver Stevie Awards were in the Branded Content Campaign of the Year and Marketing Disruptor of the Year categories. CMU was the only university to win a Silver Stevie through all categories of the marketing awards, and tied for the award with State Farm, DHL and Deloitte. US Cellular and Adobe took home gold in both categories.

“We’re proud of all the awards, but the Stevie Awards are next level,” said Abby Dean, executive director of integrated marketing. “To be recognized in the same categories, at the same levels is really affirming of the work we’re producing. It speaks to the caliber of this team.”

The Hermes platinum awards were in the digital marketing campaign and integrated marketing campaign categories.

University Communication’s application fee waiver campaign won gold in the 2024 Hermes Creative Award social media campaign category.

“It’s very humbling to lead a team like this,” Dean said. “Individually, each member owns their expertise and brings it to bear on the execution of our work. As a team, they trust, challenge, strive and rely on each other to produce work judged equal to national and global brands like State Farm and Adobe. To help lead this team – particularly for my alma mater – is a true honor.

CMU was the only university to win a Stevie Award and the only university to win platinum in the Hermes “Digital Marketing Campaign.” It was one of only two universities worldwide to win a Hermes in the Integrated Marketing Campaign category

The latest accolades for University Communications are in addition to those earned earlier this spring, with the awards total now sitting at 10 for the two campaigns. They include:

• Platinum: three for the brand campaign, one for the social media campaign
• Gold: two for the brand campaign, one for the social media campaign
• Silver: two for the brand campaign
• Honorable mention: one for the social media campaign