From the Nominator

"In the summer of 2020, the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith (UAFS) Marketing and Communications team embarked upon what would become a 14-month journey to redesign, reorganize, and relaunch its university website. In late August, the core web team set a firm launch date of September 20, giving our associate director for strategic communications approximately three weeks to develop a communication plan to alert campus and community of the exciting new website.   

Understanding the importance of this launch (it was one of three priorities mentioned by our new chancellor in a campus message), our associate director planned to create a launch video. She knew the video must: (1) reference the move from an old technology (non-responsive design) to new (mobile-friendly), (2) encourage engagement, and (3) be less than 30 seconds.    

The lack of a full-time videographer and looming deadline limited options to what our associate director could produce in-house. An unexpected family emergency meant our chancellor was unavailable for the video. What to do?   

Necessity is the mother of invention, and such was the case for UAFS. A brainstorming session gave our associate director the idea to use retro graphics to visually represent a transition from past to present. She created an 8-bit avatar for the chancellor and each member of the marketing and communications team, partnered with her husband to compose an original 8-bit music composition, and personally animated and produced the final video.   

The video was a hit, attracting 10,000+ views across platforms and earning media coverage from local and regional media."

From the Judges

This was a creative and original approach to promoting a major milestone for a university: the redesign and launch of a new institutional website. Creating this animated video in the fashion described was no small feat. It was great seeing the results of the avatar and video campaign and the coverage from local and regional media.