Oct. 31, 2024
MILWAUKEE — Marquette University has been named a finalist for a national award from Ragan’s PR Daily, the preeminent brand for public relations professionals, for its digital storytelling initiative – a partnership with the university’s colleges and schools to transition from printed magazines to digital storytelling across multiple communication channels.
The Ragan’s PR Daily Awards program is regarded as the communication industry’s most esteemed recognition platform, honoring the most impactful public relations, marketing and social media campaigns, along with outstanding events, individuals and teams from the past year. Marquette is a finalist in the Ragan’s PR Daily Email Communications category, which shines a spotlight on the most innovative email campaigns that captivate audiences and drive engagement.
Marquette’s digital storytelling initiative was developed to shift the university from seven college magazines to three-times-per-year email waves of digital content using a highly integrated omni-channel approach that leverages organic social media, paid digital media, web publishing, and email outreach to internal and external audiences.
“We developed this initiative with three goals in mind: to meet readers where they are, increase audience impressions and reduce costs for the university,” said Lynn Griffith, chief marketing and communication officer at Marquette. “This substantial shift in our storytelling strategy would not have been possible without buy-in from the deans and collaboration with a broad team of content creators in the Office of University Relations and our colleges and schools.”
Marquette’s digital storytelling strategy has achieved an overall reach of nearly 2.8 million impressions and over 105,000 engagements at the midpoint of its first annual publishing cycle. These same audiences were previously targeted with seven print magazines, which had a circulation of 65,000. This digital shift re-calibrated Marquette’s overall storytelling to be 77% digitally focused, allowing content to reach 13 times the print circulation and to be on pace to surpass print circulation by 20,000 direct, documented readership engagements.
“Our data show that we are successfully finding a broader reach in digital formats and seeing increased engagement with our content,” said Tom Pionek, assistant vice president of marketing. “This has led us to surpass our initial goal of 10 times the reach of print circulation, all while providing substantial cost savings for the university and supporting our sustainability goals by reducing paper usage.”
Other finalists in the Ragan’s PR Daily Email Communications category include Warner Music Group, PwC and General Building Contractors Association. Winners will be announced at a luncheon in December 2024 in New York City.
About Ragan’s PR Daily
PR Daily is the preeminent brand for public relations professionals, delivering news, advice, opinions and benchmarking via PRDaily.com, awards, conferences, memberships, newsletters and more. The award-winning team of journalists and producers provides communicators, marketers and digital strategists with opportunities to learn, grow and network. PR Daily’s portfolio includes the Media Relations & Measurement Conference, The Writer’s Conference and Writer’s Certificate Course, the Social Media Conference, the Brand Storytelling Conference, the PR Daily Awards and a half dozen other awards programs, a daily newsletter and the PR Leadership Network, a vetted membership organization for mid- to senior-level PR professionals.
About Marquette University
Marquette University is a Catholic, Jesuit university located near the heart of downtown Milwaukee that offers a comprehensive range of majors in 11 nationally and internationally recognized colleges and schools. Through the formation of hearts and minds, Marquette prepares our 11,100 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and professional students to lead, excel and serve as agents of positive change. And, we deliver results. Ranked in the top 20% of national universities, Marquette is recognized for its undergraduate teaching, innovation and career preparation as the sixth-best university in the country for job placement. Our focus on student success and immersive, personalized learning experiences encourages students to think critically and engage with the world around them. When students graduate with a Marquette degree, they are truly prepared and called to Be The Difference.
Kevin is the associate director for university communication in the Office of University Relations. Contact Kevin at (414) 288-4745 or kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.
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