PPAI Honors Universities In Partnership With American Marketing Association

PPAI partnered with the American Marketing Association to present an award at the 2023 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education.

• The symposium was held November 12-15 in Chicago.
• PPAI presented an award and an honorable mention to university campaigns that leveraged promotional products to bring together campus communities while increasing brand awareness for the university at large.

Higher Education In Promo

Higher education holds an important place in promo. The campus environment is full of students and faculty, typically proud of their university and happy to represent it through all varieties of branded merch.

“Promo in higher education can mean celebrating a department, program or organization,” says Jessica Gibbons-Rauch, CAS, MBA, professional development manager at PPAI and adjunct professor at Northern Illinois University. “It can make alumni and students feel valued and part of a community.”

Sporting events, in the classroom, home for the holidays or during remote learning, students are often happy to receive anything they don’t have to pay for, and better yet if they receive something that projects the institution where they are going to school.

PPAI And AMA Honor University Promo Campaigns

For this award, presented at the 2023 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, PPAI asked nominee to submit brief overviews of their campaign, illustrate the merchandise product or products used and draft a brief description of how the branded merchandise made a significant impact on the university’s campus.

• Sustainable and environmentally friendly submissions were encouraged.

After sorting through a large number of submissions, PPAI selected a honorable mention and a winner. Honorable mention went to the University of Arizona.

• The Wildcats took a sustainable approach by bringing students and businesses together to create a product that married fashion, school spirit and responsibility.
• The Replay Clothing line emphasized reusing and recycling unused sports jerseys, giving new life to old swag while providing students with program relevant experience.

First place winner went to Illinois State University.

• The winning campaign offers free teacher classroom packs to teacher alumni each year.
• The initiative is a partnership between the College of Education, Admissions and University Marketing and Communications at Illinois State.
• As the largest producer of teachers in the Midwest, the campaign aims to thank and reward teacher alumni for their contributions to education, while allowing them to show off their Redbird pride in their classrooms.

“The sheer number of submissions for the inaugural edition of this award was impressive, but the creativity and care put into the campaigns was what really blew us away,” says Keith Vincent, PPAI’s director of marketing and public relations. “PPAI would like to congratulate the winner, honorable mention and all who submitted. It’s exciting to see what can happen when creative minds take promo into the higher education space.”