Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu
For immediate release — April 1, 2013
Newsbrief
(DALLAS) — The Dallas County Community College District’s office of public and governmental affairs has been honored recently for its efforts in advertising and media relations by three national organizations: the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations, and the Educational Advertising Awards program.
The DCCCD office of media relations, directed by Ann Hatch, earned both Gold and Silver honors in the CASE District IV 2013 Accolades Awards program for crisis communications. The entries focused on work done to counterbalance a negative billboard campaign about community colleges and efforts to inform students and communities about the new meningitis vaccine requirement for college students in Texas.
The DCCCD office of advertising and promotions, directed by Kathy Cook, received a Bronze Award in the competition for the district’s “Smart Starts Here” radio advertising series, part of an overall creative campaign designed with The Barber Shop, a Dallas-based advertising agency. CASE District IV includes public and private colleges and universities in a five-state region that covers Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and parts of Louisiana.
The district’s “Smart Starts Here” online advertising won a Gold Paragon Award in NCMPR’s national competition, and a feature story about art created by students and faculty in the welding program at the Bill J. Priest Campus of El Centro College received a Bronze Paragon Award. NCMPR’s members include marketing and public relations professionals from community colleges across the country; the organization is affiliated with the American Association of Community Colleges.
The DCCCD “Smart Starts Here” creative campaign also was recognized with four major awards in the 2013 Educational Advertising Awards program: a Gold Award in television advertising/series, a Silver Award in radio advertising/series, a Bronze Award for overall advertising campaign and a Merit Award for the direct mail piece titled “Thinking About College,” which is the brochure that the district sends to high school juniors and seniors. In the Educational Advertising Awards contest, DCCCD competes with colleges and universities throughout the country in the Group 5 category — schools with 20,000 or more students.
For more information, contact Ann Hatch, district director of media relations in the DCCCD office of public and governmental affairs, at (214) 378-1819 or at
ahatch@dcccd.edu.
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