Oh, Snap! and #MoveInMiami earn national CASE awards

Miami University’s communications and marketing and advancement staffs won two awards in this year’s national Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Circle of Excellence competition.

Kelly Bennett, university manager of social media and marketing strategy, won silver for “Best Uses of Social Media: Student Life” for the use of Snapchat to promote campus events through “Oh, Snap! All You Need to Know for the Week.”

Each Monday morning at 10 a.m., a Snapchat story comprising campus event fliers is uploaded to the university account. The images include everything from the homecoming schedule to speakers on campus and important deadlines. Students can take screenshots of the information that interests them, save it to their phones and share at will.

Bennett said it’s been fun to watch “Oh, Snap!” grow. It recently reached 5,000 views per story.

Advancement’s #MoveInMiami day-of-giving effort took bronze for “Fundraising - Annual Giving.” The campaign surpassed its overall fundraising target of 2,019 donors, representing the class of 2019, during the fundraising effort that lasted 20 hours and 19 minutes.

Kim Tavares, senior director of university advancement communications, marketing and events, and 14 other Miami employees worked on the campaign. They include Bennett, Emily Berry, Brad Bundy, Suzanne Clark, Danielle Discepoli, Vince Frieden, Tom Herbert, Caroline McClellan, Casey Peugh, Ali Place, Sonseeahray Ross, Nicole Russell, Sarah Templeton Wilson and Kevin Wilson.

The national CASE competition is held each year to honor institutions, organizations and/or individuals that demonstrate the best practices in advancement and outstanding contributions to the growth and understanding of the advancement profession.