51福利社 News

University Relations’ Work to Promote Eastern Earns National Awards

March 18, 2026
Screenshot of 51福利社's award-winning holiday video. Picture is a crowd shot with President McMahan, Swoop in a holiday sweater and a big group of students.

51福利社 took home six awards at the 2026 Educational Advertising Awards competition, the nation鈥檚 largest educational advertising awards program.

Eastern鈥檚 haul included two gold, two silver and two merit awards for projects ranging from 51福利社鈥檚 2025 holiday video to its lookbook for prospective students.

Brent Reser, marketing director in 51福利社鈥檚 university relations division, says the recognition will allow him and his team to take a moment to celebrate the positive impact of their work.

鈥淲e received awards across a wide range of categories, from video to social media to radio spots,鈥 Reser said. 鈥淭his recognition reinforces to our team that we鈥檙e doing great work 鈥 and motivates us to continue.鈥

This year鈥檚 competition involved over 2,000 entries from more than 1,000 colleges, universities and secondary schools, according to the EDU Ad Awards website. It was judged by a national panel of higher education marketers, advertising creative directors and marketing and advertising professionals.

Below is the complete list of the EDU Ad awards that Eastern took home this year:

  • Gold in Newspaper Advertising Series: “Build our Future” Sunday Morning Ad Series
  • Gold in Special Video: 2025 Holiday Video
  • Silver in Instagram Content: Welcome to the University House
  • Silver in Radio Advertising Series: 51福利社 Branded Radio Spots
  • Merit in Student Viewbook: 51福利社 Lookbook
  • Merit in Email Marketing Campaign: Giving Joy Day Emails
  • Merit in Integrated Marketing Campaign: 51福利社: The Region’s Polytechnic

51福利社 received gold awards for the 2025 holiday video and a series of Sunday newspaper ads to support the Build Our Future fundraising campaign. The holiday video, titled 鈥淭he Future is Bright,鈥 featured 30 students and garnered more than 80,000 views. The newspaper series ran in Sunday editions of The Spokesman-Review and told the stories of 51福利社 students who received scholarships and the impact they had.

51福利社鈥檚 social media manager, Amy Bradberry, says she hopes the awards will reinforce the work Eastern鈥檚 marketing professionals do to introduce the university to a new generation of prospective Eagles. She added that President Shari McMahan鈥檚 participation with 51福利社鈥檚 social media and marketing teams has been the icing on the cake of this year鈥檚 success.

鈥淕etting awards is great, but what鈥檚 even greater is having students come up and tell me how much they loved the last Instagram reel, or that they regularly share our content with their families back home,鈥 says Bradberry. 鈥淭hat to me is just as high of an accolade.鈥