Texas Southmost College is celebrating a big win for its media and marketing department that recently brought home 12 American Advertising Awards for the graphic design work, recruiting campaigns and videos produced for the college in 2020-2021.
The team of creatives earned five gold, two silver, three bronze, a Best of Video and Best of Online awards, earning a chance to move on to the district competition, a four-state region.
“We are humbled and honored to have represented Texas Southmost College well and made our Scorpion family proud,” said Dr. Joanna Kile, TSC Vice President. “This team strives for creative excellence, working long hours and facing deadline pressure daily. I’m so happy their work has been recognized. They deserve this.”
The American Advertising Awards is one of the industry’s largest creative competitions, attracting more than 30,000 professional and student entries each year through competitions offered by local American Advertising Federation (AAF) chapters, which are affiliate members of the AAF headquartered in Washington D.C.
The AAF-Rio Grande Valley chapter virtually hosted this year’s local awards and received hundreds of entries from local higher education institutions and area advertising agencies and businesses.
“We submitted the best of the best and it was tough to choose because despite the challenges of last year, the team has produced some great work,” said Lynda Lopez, TSC Executive Director of Advancement and Communication.
Among the submissions that earned numerous awards was the TSC Study Local campaign, that brings to light all of the great reasons students should consider enrolling at TSC, such as affordability and family support, and the TSC CARES campaign, that reminds students to stay safe and strong through this pandemic.
TSC’s Director of Multimedia Frank Morris said there is tremendous talent in the Rio Grande Valley, so to see his team win 12 awards was an exhilarating experience.
“For our work to rank high among our peers really shows what great leadership we have and how talented our team is,” he said. “We are a fast-paced department that is constantly creating and producing. This recognition was a moment for us to pause, take a step back and see how our hard work is paying off and being appreciated.”
He added that his team can do their best work because their executive leadership empowers them to continue pushing creative boundaries.
“Our Board of Trustees and President gives us so much support and that enables us to continue keeping content fresh and engaging,” said Morris. “Our goals are to continue making TSC shine, attracting new students with our content, showing the great things happening at TSC and continuing to make the quality of our work better than it was yesterday. And if we win some more awards for that, then that’s awesome.”
This is not the first time the multimedia team brings home distinguished awards for their excellence in video. Last year, they earned a coveted Telly Award, which honors excellence in television nationwide, for an informative video on domestic violence.
“Every member of this team brings a unique strength to the table, and together, they’ve proven they are a creative force,” said Kile. “These awards validate the team’s work because the creative process takes great collaboration and being able to produce quality work through conference calls and Zoom meetings is a real testament to the talent on the team and the dedication of each member. But most importantly, these awards help promote Texas Southmost College and the great work our institution does for the communities we serve.”