Projects produced by University Marketing & Communications at Washington University in St. Louis recently received grand gold and bronze 2022 Circle of Excellence Awards from CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education). The annual awards recognize exceptional work by professionals to advance educational institutions.
The digital team earned a grand gold award in the “Marketing | Websites (Institutional)” category for the 2021 redesign of The Source, which focused on increasing user engagement among the site’s more than 2 million annual visitors.
The redesign aimed to offer visitors more relevant stories and to enhance storytelling capabilities with more interactive functionality. Page views and pages per session have nearly doubled, and the bounce rate dropped. The team originally redesigned the website to merge the Newsroom, the Record and Washington Magazine into one digital property in 2016.
Team members who worked on the 2021 redesign are Chris Amelung, Jessica Diel, William Emery, Sam Hermes, Alex Popp, Kristopher Raske, Brandy Rustemeyer, Ria Sharon and Martin Yoakum.
Separately, the video titled “In Search of Refuge” won a bronze award in the “Communications | Storytelling” category. The video was featured in Washington Magazine.
The video titled “The Neuroscience of Fear” also won a bronze award in the “Video | Holiday/Year-end” category.
MarComm contributors to the video projects included: James Byard, Anne Davis Cleary, Markia Holt, Brandie Jefferson, Kayse Larkin, Tom Malkowicz, Cassaundra Moore, Terri Nappier, Talia Ogliore, Rachel Twedt and Javier Ventura.
Additional WashU contributors included: Brad Averbeck, WashU Facilities Planning and Management; Ryan Bogdan and Jonathan Myers, Arts & Sciences; Barbara Schaps Thomas, Board of Trustees; and Kim Medley, Tyson Research Center.
