Reputation and brand management recognized with national award

By Anne Buckley

Virginia Commonwealth University News Services received a prestigious reputation and brand management award from a national public relations group for its strategic plan that significantly boosted local, regional, national and international awareness of the largest university in Virginia.

The National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America awarded VCU's University News Services the Thoth certificate of excellence for reputation and brand management. The Thoth awards honor talent, creativity and innovation among the top public relations professionals in the Washington, D.C., area. The award was presented during the 39th Annual Thoth Awards at the National Press Club Sept 20.

VCU's entry of the department's strategic public relations plan was judged against those submitted from entrants that included large, international public relations firms. The reputation and brand management category honors programs that enhance, promote or improve an organization's reputation.

“This recognition means a great deal to VCU, which has as part of the university’s overall strategic plan a goal of gaining national recognition of the quality of research and teaching being conducted here,” said Sue Ann Messmer, VCU vice president for external relations.

"Several challenges confronted UNS in developing and carrying out a campaign to build a national reputation for VCU," said Pamela D. Lepley, director of UNS. "First, the university is young, without the generations of traditions that build national school spirit and reputation.

"But, VCU's rapid growth has had a tremendous, positive impact on the region's economy and quality of life, and the scientific research conducted at the university is world class with nationally renowned faculty," Lepley said. Despite this, VCU — now the largest university in Virginia with the largest academic medical center in the state — was saddled with low awareness of its status as a major urban research institution locally as well as nationally. Its extremely small staff worked strategically to shed the 'VCU Who?' image on an international media stage."

The staff was able to parlay many of its challenges into opportunities.

"Our staff, while small, is highly proficient, creative and tenacious," Lepley said. "The university's entrepreneurial spirit allowed us to share and leverage resources to expand a low-budget campaign."

Implementation began at the beginning of 2006 with aggressive media relations, identifying and establishing relationships with national reporters and producers and dramatically increasing personal pitches. Databases were improved and updated regularly and national distribution services were strategically used.

UNS created a new VCU NewsCenter Web site as a 24-hour newsroom with more user-friendly media tools and created multimedia, searchable news releases, sometimes having several versions of releases to better target them.

UNS was able to show the overwhelming success of the plan, all without primary attitudinal and awareness research. Results included a 68 percent increase in total media hits, particularly in national publications, over the previous year; a 31 percent increase in incoming media inquiries, suggesting greater awareness; a 255 percent increase in targeted pitches; and a 193 percent increase in visits to VCU View, the online faculty and staff newsletter.

Further, UNS looked at other measures to calculate success of the program, including development and fundraising, where a university target of $330 million for the "Campaign for VCU" surpassed its goal by more than $80 million; and admissions applications for Fall 2007 hit a record 16,530, up more than 5,000 for Fall of 2005 and up more than 2,000 for Fall of 2006.

Chartered in 1947, the PRSA is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals with nearly 21,000 members. The National Capital Chapter is the association's largest chapter with nearly 1,300 members from the Washington metropolitan area.