As The UWI advances implementation of its Revenue Revolution, the University Marketing and Comminutions Office (UM&C) continues to play a significant role as a key business function supporting the University’s Centre operations. 

This phase of the strategic planning cycle dedicated to leveraging the institution’s high reputation to generate profitable revenue requires calculated public affairs, brand and reputation management. In spite of its lean composition and being woefully under-resourced, UM&C provides a broad range of integrated marketing communications services for the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellery Offices, the University’s specialized centres and units, and special initiatives including brand/reputation counsel; internal communication; media relations; website project management; digital marketing; event management; writing/editing and producing publications and more.

As an interim measure to increase the efficiency of its operations, the Office has recruited, trained and enabled the support of 10 interns since 2021, including and on the job trainee through the Ministry of Labour in Trinidad and Tobago starting in April 2022.

Significantly, the work of the University Marketing & Communications Office during the 2022-2023 academic year, earned two gold international industry awards from the AVA Digital Awards in the Special Anniversary Event Communication Products category and the Annual Educational Advertising Awards in the Special Promotions Campaign category for the marketing communications of the 75th anniversary “Rooted Ready Rising” campaign. This brings the total to six awards earned by the Office over the past two academic years.

The following outlines some of U-M&C's other major departmental highlights and achievements throughout the reporting period.

PROMOTION OF ‘ONE UWI’

A key role of the UM&C office is championing an Integrated Marketing & Communications approach for the entire University system, effecting partnership with the Campus M&C teams, a testament to the ONE UWI philosophy.  Driving the implementation of Integrated M&C strategies and tactics to support The UWI’s mission, vision and the objectives laid out in the Triple A Strategic Plan was the alignment to the 2nd five-year phase of the Triple A Strategy entitled the Revenue Revolution.  Among the initiatives in which the Office led this ONE UWI Integrated Marketing & Communications approach are as follows:

• 2022 Graduation Ceremonies
• 2023 Council Meetings
• Commemoration of the University’s 75th anniversary

The development and coordination of a consistent and seamless model showcasing a single Caribbean rooted University in the 2022 graduation ceremonies led by UM&C is a demonstration of the success of the One UWI philosophy in action.

UM&C’s Key Roles involved:

• Serving on the Central University Planning Committee
• Developing and coordinating programme content
  • Providing Updated About UWI Profile
  • Editing Campus Highlights (x5)
  • Providing Principal Officers listing
  • Editing and proving Alumni Message
  • Provided research and, copywriting for Honorary Graduand profiles
• Supporting the Open Campus 
  • Serving on the Campus Planning Committee
  • Reputation management
• Providing support to Five Islands Campus through liaison with M&C Officer
  • Coordinated the production of the graduation programme
  • Developed and distributed media invitation

Some key related metrics include:

• Over 45 stories covered across regional media on the Graduation Ceremonies and Honorary Degree Conferrals
• 11,818 unique viewers watched the 15 ceremonies via UWItv on uwitv.global
• 8,473 unique viewers watched the 15 ceremonies via UWItv on Facebook
• 4,969 visits to the 2022 Graduation Ceremonies landing page, www.uwitv.global/uwigrad2022 from October 8 to November 24

STRATEGIC MARKETING COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

75th Anniversary Celebrations

UM&C’s purview in supporting the commemoration of the 75th Anniversary Celebrations began months ahead of the anniversary year as part of the steering and planning committee, conceptualising the brand communication and launch activities, signature promotions, as well and leading the Marketing Communications

UM&C led the development of the 75th anniversary branding and visual identity which included the development of the theme, messaging, logo and style manual and a dedicated commemorative website. The strategy helped forge unity and coherence across the campaign. A consistent branding strategy across all promotional materials played a key role in fostering a strong visual identity for the commemorative year.

Signalling the start of the celebrations included internal messaging with the University community in October and December 2022, followed by a detailed launch campaign in January 2023. The launch comprised a four-day package of teaser messages explained the anniversary theme and reveal different key aspects of the launch. The 4-part video campaign generated 6.1k views on YouTube.

Day 1 (Jan 3, 2023) – ROOTED https://youtu.be/OrZsXe0LXWQ?si=1H2-cD8yyrD495ww 

Day 2 (Jan 4, 2023) – READY https://youtu.be/ioyY8AoBFL4?si=9A9zcLNDyqrJG6LF 

Day 3 (Jan 5, 2023) – RISING https://youtu.be/AWiqOMq-Tos?si=wFAPbcBBrop9VKqd 

Day 4 (Jan 6, 2023) – It all comes together - full launch video, logo reveal and website launch
         https://youtu.be/_IDQ4YzdKbM?si=977dujocBXUsJN-6

Throughout the anniversary year, speeches, presentations, and interviews showcased the university's accomplishments and emphasized the importance of the 75th anniversary celebrations. News releases were regularly issued to media outlets, local, regional and international, to highlight key milestones, announcements, and event details. This helped generate media coverage and raise the profile of the celebrations in the public space. Examples include:

• Media Release: The UWI ushers 75th anniversary celebrations with “UWI Day” and Year-long celebrations to mark UWI's 75th anniversary – generated 34 individual news stories in regional media
• Social Media content: The UWI Celebrates October 4—75 years since the start of its first class – shared over 272 times on Facebook only

UM&C’s involvement in the commemoration also included support of anniversary activities, namely: the Media Launch, Mini Quizzes competition, T20 Cricket Tournament, UWI Rise Talent Show and the promotion of anniversary merchandise.

The outcomes of the year-long commemoration and celebration were

• Enhanced brand visibility of the University
• Increased social media engagement
• Positive media coverage across the region and diaspora
• Overall enhancement of the university's reputation and its contributions to the region

Student Satisfaction And Staff Engagement Survey 2023

UM&C conceptualised and developed the campaign for promoting the launch and implementation of 2023 Student Satisfaction And Staff Engagement Survey. The Office’s purview included serving on the planning and implementation committee, conceptualising the communication framework and developing and distributing marketing communications assets and counselling the cross-campus Marketing & Communications Teams on its implementation. UM&C therefore played a significant role, contributing to the outcome of 2,696 student respondents/6.7 % population and 6,452 staff respondents/15.2% population.

Masters in Reparatory Justice

UM&C partnered with counterparts at the Cave Hill Campus and the University of Glasgow to promote the launch of the double degree MA/MSc in Reparatory Justice, and recruit for the first cohort of students in the programme. The integrated marketing communications campaign included a mix of promotional graphics and short videos, public relations which generated 10 stories in regional and UK press and 3,442 clicks from a spend of USD306.88 in paid social media promotion...

EVENT MANAGEMENT SUPPORT/ PROMOTION

U-M&C provides a vital leading role in the design and execution of hybrid and virtual programmes and events for the offices of the Vice-Chancellery, from major University wide events such as Council Meetings and Graduation ceremonies to smaller, but equally important governance meetings such as University Council, TAC and UGC meetings. Other significant event management support provided during the period included the following:

• Trevelyan Family Apology at Grenada Reparations Forum
• Reparations and Royalty, Africa and Europe: Exploding Myths and Empowering Truths
• Vice-Chancellor’s Forum on 'Artificial Intelligence – A Blessing or Curse for Higher Education?'
• BEYOND 75 – A HIGHER ED FORUM
• Ground-breaking "Reparations and Racial Healing Study Tour" in Bridgetown, Barbados
• Africa-CARICOM Day celebration

ENHANCEMENT OF BRAND VISIBILITY AND GLOBAL PROFILE

The U-M&C Office also nurtured strategic messaging and storytelling to enhance The UWI’s brand visibility and global profile in focal areas such as the University’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-engagement, climate research and resilience advocacy, global ranking performance and the rebranding of the Open Campus as the Global Campus.

MEDIA RELATIONS

The University Marketing and Communications Office has been working diligently to build and maintain The UWI brand and enhance its reputation both regionally and globally. The Office's primary focus is to manage communication between the university and news media by informing the public about the university's mission, policies, and practices in a positive, consistent, and credible manner. This involves developing relationships with journalists and media outlets, both regionally and internationally, to ensure effective media coverage.

During the reporting period, the Office was responsible for crafting and disseminating over sixty stories. More than 25% of these stories focused specifically on the UWI's strategic direction, while 20% of the stories focused on profiling the regional and international contributions of staff, students, and alumni.

Collaboration with CAMPUS produced by Times Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed

In 2023, a new partnership brokered by the Office confirmed The UWI as a contributor to THE CAMPUS publication produced by Times Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. The platform offers an opportunity to all levels of staff in academia to showcase their expertise and build networks with colleagues at universities and colleges all over the world, by extension building the University’s reputation. To date, The UWI’s content on the platform includes 21 articles from 16 members of staff. The platform has also opened increased opportunities to promote UWI content and activities among its international audience, including the upcoming Five Islands Campus AI conference in July 2024.

OTHER NOTEWORTHY WORK & ACHIEVEMENTS

UM&C’s University Service Contributions for 2022-2023

• Chair, M&C Sub-Committee, Data Protection Policy
• Chair, M&C Working Group, UWI Global Online
• Chair, UWItv Executive Production Team
• Chair, M&C Sub-Committee of the UWI 75th Anniversary Planning
• Member, Gender Audit Sub-Committee
• Member, Gender Mainstreaming Committee
• Member, Global Climate Smart Resilient Development Resource Mobilisation Committee
• Member, University Risk Management Steering Committee
• Member, UWI 75th Anniversary Planning Committee
• Member, UWI COVID-19 Task Force
• Member, UWI Digital Transformation Steering Custodian and Domain Sponsors Committee
• Member, UWI Global Online MOOC Partnerships Sub-Committee
• Member, UWI Graduation Planning Committee
• Member, UWI ICT Steering Committee
• Member, UWI Quality Management Committee
• Member, Voices of the Vice-Chancellery (VIV) Newsletter Editorial Committee
• Member, Working Group for the Administration of Global Students
• Member, UWI Academic Dress Task Force

The Office has extended its services to support a range of strategic and governance initiatives, including Data Protection Policy implementation, Digital Transformation Programme, and Risk Management. The Office has been an invaluable asset, providing counsel and support to all five campus M&C teams, and fostered particularly robust collaborations within the review period. Moreover, the Office has been a valuable partner to the Office of Administration, Office of Global Affairs, Office of Graduate Studies and Research and Regional Coordinating Office for the Institute for Gender and Development Studies lending its expertise to a wide array of their programmes.