The University of Pittsburgh received the Best Branded Merch in a University Marketing Campaign Award on Wednesday during the American Marketing Association Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education in Las Vegas.

  • PPAI – through its Promotional Products Work! campaign – sponsored the award for the second year in a row.
  • For this award, PPAI asked nominees to submit brief overviews of their campaign, explaining how the branded merchandise that was used made a significant impact on the university’s campus.


Josh Ellis, publisher and editor-in-chief of PPAI Magazine, presented the award to the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) for a promo-filled campaign that welcomed incoming graduate students.

“Branded merch often gets overlooked in marketing and advertising, but it’s the only medium that gives the audience the opportunity to hold and touch the campaign itself,” Ellis says. “That creates real sensory connections that drive emotion and make for storytelling opportunities.”

Behind The Campaign

Each summer, GSPIA mails new students a welcome postcard, Pitt-themed stickers and a similarly themed promotional product.

For 2024, the theme stemmed from “The Steel City’s” tradition of using chairs to reserve parking spaces. The school wanted to connect this unique cultural element to the student experience by sending each new student a cell phone holder, custom designed like a parking chair.

The message? “We’re saving your spot.”

Grad students live in apartments, and they have to fight for parking sometimes, so it aligned with their experience.”

Libby Hilf

Director of Communications & Marketing, University of Pittsburgh’s GSPIA

Libby Hilf, director of communications and marketing at the University of Pittsburgh’s GSPIA, conceived the campaign while shopping at Five Below with her kids.

“I looked over at the dollar bin and saw the folding chair,” Hilf says. “It made me laugh because it’s a thing we joke about in Pittsburgh. We hadn’t yet decided what was going to go in the summer mailing, and they were only a dollar, so the price was right, and they were Pitt blue. Grad students live in apartments, and they have to fight for parking sometimes, so it aligned with their experience.”

Once the campaign was approved, Hilf and her colleagues scoured Five Below stores in the area, purchasing well over 100 chairs. The campaign was a smash hit on social media, as well, with recipients posting videos and photos of them “unboxing” the mailing.

Maggie Rehberg, communications and marketing manager at the University of Pittsburgh’s GPSIA, emphasized that the campaign’s messaging was uniquely tailored to graduate students.

“We didn’t send them our athletic mascot or something like that. We really wanted to welcome them to the community of our school, as well as the Pittsburgh community,” Rehberg says. “This campaign wasn’t just about you’re going to be on campus, and we can’t wait to see you. It was about you’re going to be part of this community and the legacy of Pittsburgh.”

The Power Of Promo

Ellis, who along with Lindsey Davis, MAS, director of marketing, business and professional development at PPAI, was one of the judges, calls the chair an “incredible conversation piece.”

“Any out-of-towner who received the miniature parking chair would immediately feel a connection to the Pittsburgh community,” Ellis says. “You can imagine these new yinzers proudly displaying the parking chair on their desks for years to come.”

According to the judges, by sending this thoughtful and functional item, the school created a bridge between the students’ future on campus and the city’s cultural heritage. Ultimately, it was an exceptional use of branded merch’s unique ability to tell a memorable story.

“Every organization…can connect with customers and key audiences by thinking a bit more deeply about its merch…

Lindsey Davis, MAS

Director of Marketing, Business & Professional Development, PPAI

“This campaign said so much about Pittsburgh and the university while being so simple,” Davis says. “It was a genius way to welcome new students to the community and make them feel at home.

“Every organization – from institutions of higher learning to non-profits and businesses of all size – can connect with customers and key audiences by thinking a bit more deeply about its merch and working with certified distributors of promotional products on creative campaigns that drive results.”