From the judges: UC Davis implemented an audience-first approach with a clean and easy-to-navigate redesign that displays their commitment to providing value to their Generation Z audience. As an in-house, no additional overhead project with truly impressive metrics, we agree that this entry is a model that could be replicated at other institutions.
UC Davis Life Newsletter
Category
Communications > Communications Improvement
Description
Award: Gold
Institution: University of California, Davis
Title of Entry: UC Davis Life Newsletter
About this Entry: The UC Davis Life newsletter is the flagship student newsletter for the Division of Student Affairs at UC Davis. Delivered to the inboxes of approximately 30,000 undergraduate students monthly, the newsletter is among the most impactful ways for the division’s nearly 30 departments to reach students with updates, events, resources, as well as universitywide and UC systemwide mandated messaging around topics such as mental health and sexual violence.
At the start of the 2019–20 academic year, Student Affairs Marketing and Communications (SAMC) saw an opportunity to refresh the look and feel of the newsletter, as well as rethink the overall strategy. Along with Student Affairs’ social media, the name would change from the “Student Life” to “UC Davis Life” newsletter to be more inclusive in the scope of both audience and subject matter. The changes to the look and feel were based on insights drawn from a study of newsletter best practices, with emphasis on designing the updated newsletter in tune with the preferences of Gen Z. This is an area where SAMC has emerged as a thought leader on campus and beyond, with two team members giving presentations on Gen Z and marketing in higher education across campus and at national conferences.
With high open and click-through rates, the updated newsletter has outperformed its previous incarnation and has strengthened the Student Affairs brand on campus, ensuring that even greater numbers of students are motivated to access the important and topical information it carries.