KNOXVILLE -- At its annual convention last was week in Dallas, the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) announced that the Tennessee athletic marketing department netted a pair of “Best Of” awards for the 2011-12 academic year.
Tennessee’s full-time athletic marketing staff includes Doug Kose, Jimmy Delaney, Rocky Kundert and Jenny Brown.
Tennessee’s “Fear The Pants” flash mob – which took place at last season’s Oct. 29 home football game against South Carolina and featured more than 100 students along with legendary UT football coach Johnny Majors – won gold in the Best Student Promotion category.
The flash mob, which was conceived and implemented by graduate assistant Drew Rutherford in conjunction with the athletic marketing staff, was selected for gold among successful student promotions at Washington State (silver) and Iowa State (bronze). Video of the flash mob has been viewed more 44,400 times online. The promotion also was featured nationally on ESPN.com.
Tennessee’s athletic marketers also garnered gold in the Best Radio Ad category for the “There is no I in Tennessee” radio spot to promote ticket sales and attendance for the 2011-12 men’s basketball campaign. In its category, UT’s spot – featuring the voices of the basketball team members – beat out similarly successful radio ads from Minnesota (silver) and Florida State (bronze).
“This is the first year Tennessee has ever won multiple golds,” said Delaney, UTAD’s senior director for marketing and sales. “We’re blessed with a world-class overall athletic program to promote. And Tennessee fans everywhere should share in the pride of this recognition, because it wouldn’t be possible without them.”
Initiated in 2003, the NACMA Best of Awards program honors outstanding achievement in marketing and promotions. Awards are presented in 13 categories, with each category divided into three groups based upon school size and conference affiliations to promote fairness. An association record of more than 950 awards entries were received for the 2011-12 year.
The winners were recognized during an awards ceremony Tuesday in Dallas.
With this year’s most recent honors, UTAD marketing has now won 11 NACMA awards over the last seven years, including five gold, three silver and three bronze.
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)