2009-2010

News Release

REF NO.: 60

SUBJECT:

DATE: October 29, 2009

Memorial University has been singled out yet again for its Novel Ideas: President’s Report 2008, a publication crafted inside the university that has already garnered numerous awards nationally and internationally.
Members of the Division of Marketing and Communications accepted the 2009 Award for Best Brochure and Catalogue for Novel Ideas: President’s Report 2008 in Halifax yesterday. The annual report was also recognized with two Craft Awards: one for writing and one for design. The ICE (Innovation, Creativity, Enterprise) Awards are organized by a diverse group of Atlantic Canadian advertising and marketing professionals.
"I am very pleased that our report has been recognized, yet again, for its unique approach and effective style," said Dr. Christopher Loomis, Memorial’s president and vice-chancellor, pro tempore. “It is especially rewarding coming from those outside our normal peer group. This award speaks to Memorial’s innate spirit of exploring new ways of doing things, and our success in their application."
Considering the ICE Awards is an advertising- and marketing-dedicated event, Memorial’s executive director of the Division of Marketing and Communications Victoria Collins said the award is particularly satisfying as institutional publications are not typically included in the competition.
"It's a real morale booster," said Ms. Collins. "The ICE award will hopefully help attract more creative individuals to come and work at Memorial, as well as build on the university's visibility nationwide."
Novel Ideas: President’s Report 2008 is a website and a 48-page brochure that includes highlights of the university’s major accomplishments during 2007-08. Both the web version and the highlights brochure contain the university’s financial statements and an array of statistics on the province’s only university, the largest post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada.
The report was issued under the conceptual theme of Novel Ideas. It includes a number of stories – covering research, teaching and community involvement activities – that draw their names from famous novels.
Novel Ideas: President's Report 2008 was honoured this past summer by the international higher education organization, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), receiving its 2009 Grand Gold Medal for best institutional relations publication in its Circle of Excellence Awards program. Novel Ideas beat out 118 entries from universities and colleges around the world to receive this singular distinction. As well, the publication was awarded a bronze medal in CASE's 2009 Excellence in Design Awards and a Pinnacle Award of Merit for Annual Reports from the International Association of Business Communicators' (IABC) Newfoundland and Labrador chapter.

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