Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s Office of Communications staff was honored with three Bronze Quill Awards of Excellence during the recent Bronze Quill Awards Ceremony hosted by the Arkansas chapter of the International Association of Business Communications.

The recognitions mark the second consecutive year that the Office of Communications has earned three Bronze Quill Awards of Excellence. The communications staff also received an Award of Merit for the Ouachita Online advertising campaign and Ouachita’s IABC student chapter received the only student award presented this year.

Ouachita received five of the 23 awards presented during the annual statewide communications award ceremony. Some of the other winners across the state included the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, Heifer International, Riceland Foods and Winrock International.

IABC links communicators in a global network that supports the highest professional standards of quality and innovation in organizational communication. The Arkansas chapter’s Bronze Quill Awards are designed to recognize excellence in the fields of communications, marketing and public relations.

“It’s always helpful to have our work critiqued by professional peers,” said Trennis Henderson, OBU vice president for communications. “While we value the recognition and feedback, our primary goal is to effectively communicate the Ouachita message for the benefit of our students, faculty, staff, alumni and future students. These awards are an affirmation of our staff members’ talent, hard work and commitment to excellence.”

Among this year’s Bronze Quill Awards of Excellence, Ouachita was recognized for The Ouachita Circle alumni magazine, Grant Center for International Education recruiting booklet and Tiger Tunes program.

The Ouachita Circle, the university’s semi-annual alumni magazine, has earned numerous state and national awards in recent years from IABC/Arkansas, Baptist Communicators Association and Higher Ed Marketing. According to the IABC/Arkansas judges, “The writing in these publications is engaging, clear and attention-holding. The use of photography is very good, the layout crisp and consistent.”

The Grant Center recruiting booklet was designed by René Zimny, assistant director of graphic services, to help recruit international students and missionary kids. Affirming that “the branding consistency is exceptional,” judges added, “This is a very nice recruiting piece. All aspects of campus life, academics and student services were covered. The photography is beautiful and demonstrates a variety of ethnic backgrounds to appeal to international students as well as the diverse cultures of the U.S.”

The Tiger Tunes program was designed by Brooke Zimny, director of communications and marketing. It featured 3-D glasses and images. Describing the design as “excellent and very creative,” the judges added that “the mock-up of 3-D glasses was a nice touch as well.”

The Ouachita Online advertising campaign featured print and electronic ads highlighting Ouachita’s new online degree programs. The ad campaign “addressed the need to align key messages with target audiences, the need for photography that fit the target audience and ad placement to reach the target audience,” judges noted. “Well done. Great design for these ads – both print and online!”

In addition to the Office of Communications awards, Ouachita’s student chapter of IABC received an Award of Merit for the chapter’s Cliff Harris Award Twitter campaign. Citing “good consistency between the work plan and the deliverables,” judges affirmed the “well-thought-out tweets that utilized photography, @replies and motivated users to be engaged.”

“I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be involved in and recognized by a prestigious organization like IABC,” said Chelsea Whelpley, president of the student chapter and a senior mass communications major from Little Rock. “It's been an honor to lead our student chapter and being recognized at the Bronze Quills served as an affirmation of the hard work of the entire chapter in making this campaign a success.”