Cornerstone University’s marketing department recently won four Admissions Advertising Awards, competing against more than 1,000 colleges, universities and secondary schools nation-wide.

Dawn T. Pick Benson, director of marketing and communication, said the department won awards in four categories: silver in total public relations program, bronze in external publications, merit in direct mail advertising and merit in brochure.

The silver was for all the publications surrounding President Joe Stowell’s inauguration. The bronze was for CU’s Spring 2008 magazine. The two merit awards were for the flyer “Meet Cornerstone’s Newest Joe” and the Leadership Journey brochure.

While the awards were announced Feb. 23, the items entered in the contest were for 2008. The competition, the 24th Annual Admissions Advertising Awards, was sponsored by the Admissions Marketing Report, according to Pick Benson.

The purpose of the competition is “to recognize the field of admissions marketing and advertising,” Pick Benson said. “The industry has matured into a sophisticated and competitive field, meeting the needs of knowledgeable prospects who are making their own educational decisions.”

“This year, over 2,000 entries were received from more than 1,000 colleges, universities and secondary schools from all 50 states and several foreign countries,” Pick Benson said. She said winning these awards has helped to “put Cornerstone on the map” and show what kind of school CU is.

Pick Benson said she was proud of how CU did in comparison to the other schools in the contest.

“When I look at the list of the schools who won awards, a lot of those schools use major advertising agencies to do their work for them … all of our work was done in-house by our two designers [Caroline Cahoon and Dave Malec] on staff,” Pick Benson said.

In addition to Pick Benson on staff as director, Malec is a graphic designer, Cahoon is the art director, Kelli Cottrell is the writer/editor and Katherine Felber is the project manager.

Pick Benson also said she was proud of her staff and their accomplishments.

“It takes a team effort when you win an award. They are looking for a lot of different aspects,” Pick Benson said. “It’s not just the design. It’s the content that goes into it and the writing and editing.”

Benson said without all of these components, advertising would not be successful.

This is not the first year this staff has been recognized by the Admissions Advertising Awards. They first entered the competition Pick Benson’s first year on staff, four years ago. They won one award the first year, three the following and four last year.

Tim Johnston, senior vice president for enrollment management and marketing, appreciates the marketing staff and the effort they have put into their advertising for future students, present students and alumni.

“They are very talented people capable of producing quality pieces,” he said, speaking of the staff.

But he also said it was not all about the recognition.

“Being recognized by your peers is a comforting and reassuring type of award. However, the most important thing is to our students, our prospective students and our alumni, do they respond to the things that we do?” Johnston said. “A lot of people think we should do things really creatively, but yet they have no impact.”

He said the true test to see if advertising is working is if enrollment has gone up and if alumni feel informed.

Since the enrollment in the seminary is increasing and the projected enrollment for undergrad is up, it is working, Johnston said.

Johnston said alumni are next, and he hopes “to inform and engage them” with new advertising. In addition to this, he said within a month or so, admissions will be launching a creative messaging idea directed toward future students.