Webster GMC Earns Multiple Education Advertising Awards

Webster University's Global Marketing and Communications (GMC) unit was awarded gold, silver and bronze awards in the 37th Annual Educational Advertising Awards competition, a national competition to recognize the field of educational marketing and advertising.

During the course of 37 years, the educational advertising industry has matured into a sophisticated and competitive field, striving to meet the needs of knowledgeable prospects who are making their own educational decisions.

Webster GMC uses a multi-channel approach when it comes to marketing, advertising, communication, and earned media by integrating traditional and digital media to share information about the University story to diverse audiences. This approach has resulted in capturing these latest awards in March 2022:

Gold Award

• Website category: www.webster.edu

Silver Award

• Podcasts category: Webster World Report: "Reviewing the Pandemic" (episode 22)

Bronze Award

• Podcasts category: Webster World Report: "Racism, Race and the Pandemic" (episode 9)

Webster University's website, which was redesigned and launched in 2020, resulted in a 32 percent traffic increase while trimming the old 7,000+ page site and setting a new tone and look for Webster's web presence throughout the global campus network.

Discovery sessions for the new website were held at the Webster University main campus and at extended sites in the U.S. More than 200 faculty, staff, administrators, students and alumni took part in the sessions. Focus groups and user testing ensured stronger user engagement and ease of use based upon early design concepts.

Website designs were delivered in early 2020 and work began on the new templates for the designs. Website constituent groups were updated on progress in several rounds to build internal interest and cooperation for the site launch. Website data migration began in the mid- to late-summer of 2020, along with the construction of new web pages to enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

The Webster World Report podcast was launched at the beginning of the pandemic, and linked the global operations of Webster campuses on four continents. The podcast featured faculty, staff and student voices around the world describing adjustments to the changes and related current events during the pandemic. Episode 22 was awarded Silver, and Episode 9 was awarded Bronze.

More than 2,000 entries were received from more than 1,000 colleges, universities and secondary schools from all 50 states and several foreign countries for this competition. Gold awards were granted to 410 institutions, silver awards were awarded to 256 institutions and bronze awards were awarded to 162 institutions. Judges for the Educational Advertising Awards consist of a national panel of higher education marketers, advertising creative directors, marketing and advertising professionals.