McMaster wins national and international awards for communications and marketing excellence

Four recent awards recognize communications and marketing efforts in McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS). These 2024 awards include Circle of Excellence Awards from global association CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) and Prix d’Excellence Awards from Canada’s leading advancement organization, the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE).

“It is wonderful to have the communications and marketing work at McMaster celebrated by national and international organizations. I’m thrilled to see this recognition for our digital content and the talented teams behind this award-winning work,” said Gillian Earle, director of strategic communications and digital engagement. “It is a privilege for us to collaborate with remarkable experts here at the university to produce content that has a positive impact on our health and communities.“

Below highlights the awards featuring FHS.

Expert Explainer Series – Silver CCAE award and Bronze CASE award

This series is designed to simplify complex topics and make them easily understandable and engaging for a broad audience. The videos, posted on Instagram, feature experts from across McMaster showcasing the breadth and depth of the Faculty’s knowledge base and empowering viewers with evidence-based insights. The series began as a Faculty of Health Sciences venture, conceptualized by Shayla Vize, FHS digital communications and engagement manager, with a goal of monthly videos that reach a broad audience and build a following on the Faculty’s new Instagram page.

McMaster’s Communications, Marketing & Public Affairs (CMPA) partnered with FHS and worked to expand this successful concept to include other faculties across campus with plans to evolve and expand the series further.

Communications team members involved: In FHS, Shayla Vize, with Brandon Kaiser, FHS digital creative production lead, originated the series and created 11 videos/social posts featured in the award submission. The team has produced 26 explainer videos to date. CMPA’s Maureen Lawlor, Matt Clarke, Sid Roth, Emilia Da Silva, Kayla Da Silva and Jesse Dorey adapted the series for McMaster, initially engaging two other faculties, and have since produced more for the university series.

This series features many McMaster experts and their participation, expertise and insights are instrumental.

McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences Website Transformation – CASE Gold award

The Faculty of Health Sciences underwent a transformational shift in its digital presence and a cornerstone of this digital evolution is a new Faculty website that serves as a gateway to Health Sciences. The site was designed to be a hub that links to more than 120 faculty-related websites built in concert with the central Faculty site as part of this project. Taylor Miatello, FHS marketing manager, drove the strategy behind the main site using analytics, surveys and focus groups to build the site content for key audiences.

This initiative was led by FHS Communications in partnership with the Faculty’s Computer Services Unit (CSU) and in collaboration with ancillary service, Media Production Services (MPS), along with other critical partners and supporters across the university.

Project team members: The core project team consisted of: Gillian Earle, Taylor Miatello, Circe Luna Cordeiro, Shayla Vize and Latasha Deleo from FHS Communications; Tracy Mestdagh, Jamie Bozarth and Ryan Poole from CSU; Simon Oakley, Melanie Phillips and Tyler McIntyre from MPS. There were more contributors across the university, including from CMPA, FHS Communications and others within FHS, all who helped build and support this innovative website transformation.

Nursing Words of Wisdom Video – Bronze CCAE award

This video was produced for Nursing Week 2023 and crafted to be a testament to the bond that exists among those in the nursing profession. It showcases the profound connection between past and present nursing students. The vision of this video project, conceived by Shayla Vize, was to serve as a tribute to the rich legacy of McMaster’s nursing program, aiming to inspire and guide the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Communications team members: Shayla Vize, Brandon Kaiser, and Madelin Moses from the School of Nursing. McMaster Alumni team member, Ian Sharpe, provided the heartfelt alumni letter and the team is thankful to the McMaster alumni and students involved.