Last night, Gonzaga’s development team came away winners from Spokane MarCom’s 2012 Spark Awards! Taking home two awards for the Advent calendar website, the team received not only the Award of Excellence given to the top-scoring entry of Electronic and Interactive Internet Sites, but the Brightest Spark Award, which is an overall award selected from the winners of each category.
Gonzaga’s online, interactive Advent calendar (gonzaga.edu/Christmas) served as the main messaging vehicle for our 2011 Christmas fundraising campaign. Our goal was to build on the success of the 2010 online Advent calendar by repeating this fun-for-all-ages site. The site was developed to engage the Gonzaga community during the Christmas season, share points of pride about the University, and help Gonzaga achieve it’s year-end fundraising goals. The calendar included interactive games and competitions (e.g. the Snowball Spike game on December 5th); video messages from students, staff, future Zags; downloadable family activities (e.g. Gonzaga-themed coloring pages on December 9th); Sunday Advent prayers; Christmas music peformed by Gonzaga’s student a cappella group the Big Bing Theory; and much more.
Judges rated the Advent Calendar entry a 98 out of a possible 100 points and had the following comments:
- “Very creative!”
- “The interactive nature of the site would draw users back again and again.”
- “Very clever and well executed while still fitting in the brand.”
- Good result statistics!”
Additionally, Gonzaga took the Excellence Spark Awards for the following:
- Print Publications – Magazines: Gonzaga Magazine
- Design – Invitation or Greeting Card: Gonzaga University Gala 2011 Invitation
- Electronic & Interactive Communications – E-zines, E-newsletters, etc.: @Gonzaga, which also won a Brightest Spark Award!
So three cheers to Gonzaga for the great Marketing and Communication pieces produced last year!
The Spark Awards are presented by the Spokane Regional Marketing and Communications Association (Spokane MarCom) to recognize the best work by local marketing, communications and public relations professionals. Local professionals submitted nearly 70 entries ranging from publications and feature stories to website design and media relations campaigns. The award entries were judged by the Puget Sound Chapter of the American Marketing Association and Keokee, a Marketing Communications firm in Sandpoint, Idaho. The top entries out of all submissions received Brightest Spark Awards.