HPU Receives International Awards for Communications and Marketing

Hawai’i Pacific University received two top honors in the 2020 International Circle of Excellence Awards, announced this week by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). CASE represents communications, marketing, alumni relations, and fundraising professionals from 3,600 universities, colleges, independent schools and non-profits in 82 countries.

HPU’s Communications & Marketing team earned gold awards in both the Marketing Improvement and the Communications Improvement categories. The entries focused on HPU’s integrated communications strategies and tactics to advance the new downtown Honolulu campus, authentic student-voiced messaging, and collaborative initiatives to build enrollment.

Silver and bronze awardees in the categories were New York University, Duke University, McGill University (Canada) and La Trobe University (Australia).

Of HPU’s work, the judges said the following:

Communications Improvement:  This entry was the stand-out in the category and one that could act as an exemplar for other institutions. It is evidence-based communication at its finest. By marrying communication planning to policy change at the institution, and by achieving buy-in at the highest level of the organization, the team was able to deliver significant end results. This project also is very relevant to our times as COVID-19 negatively impacts the enrollment of international and out-of-state students at many universities

Marketing Improvement:  This is a breakthrough example of how discarding conventional wisdom and letting qualitative and quantitative data drive enrollment marketing yields results that many in the field would say are impossible to achieve. Not only was every part of this program well-focused and well-scoped, it is clear that the execution was coordinated and impeccable.