Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Various projects showcasing the creative talents of Mississippi State University staff members recently garnered high honors in national and regional public relations competitions.

At the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi’s annual conference in Ocean Springs, the Office of Public Affairs—in collaboration with colleagues from Information Technology Services—received electronic media grand and first-place awards for MSU’s redesigned website, www.msstate.edu.

Project contributors from ITS include Jason Tiffin, senior web developer and team leader, along with web designers Andy Lewis, Quan Chung and Kevin Anderson. Heather M. Rowe, digital design editor, served as OPA’s project leader for the website redesign.

OPA also received first-place radio spot and public relations campaign awards, as well as a second-place web page and third-place print advertisement award for the university’s “We Ring True” branding initiative.

First place honors also were awarded to OPA-produced “BullyBoard,” MSU’s weekly email newsletter, along with the university’s television spots, brand launch multimedia presentation and social media strategy.

Photographs titled “Dak Prescott/Dan Mullen: Senior Day” and “MSU Experience” also received first and second place awards, respectively.

OPA staff members making contributions to these award-winning projects include Sid Salter, MSU chief communications officer and director; Harriet Laird, associate director; Checky Herrington, marketing research analyst; Jim Laird, research and executive support editor; Heather M. Rowe, digital design editor; Susan Lassetter, publications editor; Erin Brown, marketing and communications coordinator; Chase Neal, social media specialist; writers Allison Matthews, Zack Plair, Sammy McDavid and Sasha Steinberg; photographers Megan Bean, Hunter Hart, Russ Houston and Beth Wynn; graphic designers Eric Abbott, Hayley Gilmore and Tim Myers; Nick Wilson, information technology coordinator; and office manager Courtney Honnoll.

Other contributors included Anthony Craven, manager of MSU’s noncommercial, community radio station WMSV 91.1 FM, and David Garraway, University Television Center director.

Also during the CPRAM competition, Plair received second place awards for the news story, “SSRC to study effects of rejection, bullying,” and feature story, “Storm Season: A decade after Katrina, continued research seeks to prevent repeat devastation.”

Earlier this year, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education for District III presented Public Affairs with an “Award of Excellence” for the television commercial “We Ring True,” which was created as a component of the university’s current branding campaign.

The “We Ring True” print, broadcast and digital advertising won “Special Merit” recognition in Total Advertising Campaign. This campaign also won a “Best of Show Broadcast” award recently from the American Advertising Federation-Jackson.

Other CASE III honors include two grand awards—one in the “Magazine Improvement” category for the university’s Alumnus magazine; the other, an Alumnus photography series by OPA photographer Beth Wynn for the “Deep Water” feature story by OPA publications editor Susan Lassetter. For more, visit http://www.tinyurl.com/MSUCaseIIIAwards.

Additionally, MSU’s brand launch and redesigned website each recently were honored with gold awards as part of the 31st annual Educational Advertising Awards from Higher Education Marketing Report.

The university’s total integrated marketing campaign—including brand advertising, social media and PR programs—also received a silver award. MSU’s social media efforts also were honored with a separate silver award.

Located in the Bost Extension Center, the MSU Extension Service’s Office of Agricultural Communications (OAC) also received numerous awards in the CPRAM senior-division competition. They include:

—First place award in the television programs category for “Farmweek,” the state’s oldest and only locally-produced agricultural television news show that broadcasts statewide year-round on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Project leaders include OAC senior extension associates Leighton Spann, Artis Ford, Tim Allison, Brian Utley, extension associates Amy Taylor and Jonathan Parrish, associate extension/research professor Gary Bachman, extension agent Natasha Haynes, media relations manager Keri Collins Lewis, social media strategist Ellen Graves and video producer Zac Ashmore.

—Second place award in the public relations campaign category for the “Bite Back, Mississippi” fire ant campaign. In addition to OAC department head Elizabeth Gregory North and colleagues Ashmore, Lewis, Spann and Utley, project contributors include senior extension associates Bonnie Coblentz and Linda Breazeale, assistant extension professors Jessica Tegt and John Long, news writer Nathan Gregory, extension associates Susan Collins-Smith and Kat Lawrence, extension professor Blake Layton, photographer Kevin Hudson and web communications designer Beth Barron.

Ashmore also received second place and third place awards in the public relations innovation category for “Fire Ants Blues Video” and “Agricultural Communications Video ID Tag,” respectively.

OPA also was recognized by the Public Relations Association of Mississippi at its annual conference in Tupelo. Each receiving the organization’s top honor—the PRism award—were MSU’s external communications initiative, employee/internal communication, and brand launch projects.

Along with an “Award of Excellence” for its brand video, MSU received a certificate of merit for the speech given by President Mark E. Keenum during last October’s brand launch campus celebration.

Others from MSU receiving statewide PRAM honors include:

—The Ag and Natural Resources Marketing Team, PRism Award in the employee/internal communication category for the MSU College of Forest Resources and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences recruiting campaign; Award of Excellence and Certificate of Merit for “Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Discovers” magazine and website, respectively; and Certificate of Merit for the College of Forest Resources website. Team members include coordinator Karen Brasher, writers Vanessa Beeson and Sarah Buckleitner, graphic designers David Ammon and Dominique Belcher, and web designers Stephen Caples and Chase Shaw.

—Diane Godwin, High Performance Computing Collaboratory publications manager, PRism Award in the annual reports category for the GeoSystems Research Institute’s annual report; and Award of Excellence for “The FAA’s Center of Excellence for UAS Research, ASSURE, the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence.”

—Ellen Graves, OAC social media strategist, Certificate of Merit in the electronic communication/social media activities/Facebook category for National 4-H Week Facebook Promotion.

—Keri Collins Lewis, OAC media relations manager, Award of Excellence in the public service category for the “Bite Back, Mississippi” fire ant campaign.

—Elizabeth Gregory North, OAC department head, Certificate of Merit in the special event programs category for “Sweeter in Mississippi: The SunBelt Ag Expo Experience;” and PRism Award for the MSU Division of Agricultural, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine’s 2014 annual report.

—Heather M. Rowe, OPA digital design editor, PRism Award in the external websites category for Mississippi State’s redesigned website, www.msstate.edu.

—Leighton Spann, OAC senior extension associate, Certificate of Merit in the YouTube/Recorded Videos/Commercials category for an Oct. 30, 2015 episode of “Farmweek.”

—Sasha Steinberg, OPA news writer, Award of Excellence for the feature story, “The Community behind the Candles.”

For more on the Office of Public Affairs, visit www.opa.msstate.edu; Office of Agricultural Communications, at www.oac.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.