From the Nominator

We hear our alumni loud and proud: They love their nostalgic cinnamon buns. This social media campaign focuses on the history of UAlberta’s famous cinnamon buns. These buns were produced on campus for decades until 1994, and they still hold a very special place in the hearts of grads of a certain era. This project was an integrated digital communications strategy that was built for multiple channels and based on the cinnamon buns feature story in the spring issue of New Trail, the alumni magazine. When New Trail magazine previously published a letter to the editor about the cinnamon buns, we received hundreds of responses from alumni sharing memories and asking for the recipe. This met three of our long-term social media goals: connect alumni to our stories, contribute to a feeling of community among alumni, and ignite nostalgia and deepen and enrich relationships with alumni who have an established connection with the university. This project not only ignited older alumni’s nostalgia, but also introduced our younger alumni to an important part of UAlberta’s history.

From the Judges

This is very cute and heartwarming. Many schools have favorite food that is the common through all the generations. The YouTube video was compelling; it was fun to watch the preparation in the format of Tasty videos that are so popular. It was also nice to learn from mistakes that you were not afraid to admit - thank you. After reading through your nomination submission early in the morning, we were all certainly craving cinnamon buns!