Contact: Allison Matthews

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University’s Office of Public Affairs is being hailed as one of the nation’s top communication and marketing teams by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education District III.

MSU won the Platinum Award — the CASE III competition’s top prize — for its “We Ring True” branding initiative, along with a Grand Award and two Awards of Excellence, during the organization’s recent annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Competing against 125 public and private higher education institutions in nine Southeastern states comprising District III, MSU emerged as the region’s top recipient for its strategic initiatives in communications and marketing. MSU and other Platinum winners will advance to CASE’s international competition this summer in Washington, D.C.

In addition to the Platinum Award, MSU gained top honors in the advertising subcategory for the university’s 2017 television commercial, which features MSU’s Car of the Future, the FAA Center for Excellence, starting quarterback Nick Fitzgerald and All-American guard Victoria Vivians.  

MSU also won two Awards of Excellence in the programs and projects subcategory for the university’s branding strategy and for external communications, which includes media and public relations, social media and advertising. 

Since its launch in 2015, the “We Ring True” branding initiative has earned numerous awards, including two 2017 Grand Awards from CASE III and the 2017 “Best of Show” award from the Public Relations Association of Mississippi. The initiative has been tied to improvements in several areas, including awareness, enrollment, corporate partnerships and annual giving.  

MSU set records for student enrollment in 2017, welcoming a total of 21,884, a number that includes an unprecedented number of transfers. Moreover, the university continues to be the top choice for college-bound Mississippians and includes students from all 50 states and 74 other countries.

In addition to being a top-ranked employer, Mississippi State is among the National Science Foundation’s Top 100 research universities. The university’s $105 million in research and development expenditures in agricultural sciences and natural resources and conservation in FY 2016 represents 44 percent of Mississippi State’s overall R&D total.

In recent years, “Infinite Impact” has grown into the most successful fundraising campaign in MSU history, reaching its $600 million fundraising goal far ahead of schedule and prompting a historic campaign retargeting goal of $1 billion by 2020.

The CASE District III award programs recognize the very best in advancement across the Southeast. CASE is an international professional association serving educational institutions and advancement professionals. CASE District III includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.