MSU Athletics named 'Marketing Team of the Year'
Rhett Hobart (left to right), Allie Ewing, Danielle Smith, Scott Wetherbee, Daniel Watkins, Leah Beasley, Madison Francis, Spencer McAnally and Shelby Fisher celebrate winning the 2016 Marketing Team of the Year Award at the national Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators Convention.
Mississippi State’s athletic marketing department won the 2016 Marketing Team of the Year Award (MTOYA), presented by SuperFanU, at the 25th annual National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) Convention last Monday [June 13] in Dallas.
“We thank NACMA for this prestigious honor,” MSU Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing Leah Beasley said.
“Just to be considered a finalist for the award with Maryland and Oregon is a privilege. I am blessed to work every day with such a creative, hard-working staff from our full-timers to our students. None of this would be possible without the leadership of our Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin and Senior Associate Athletics Director Scott Wetherbee,” she said.
During the 2015-16 athletic year, MSU shattered single-season total and/or average attendance marks in football, women’s basketball, softball and baseball. On Jan. 24, MSU’s “White Out” game drew 10,626 — the most ever for a women’s basketball game in the state of Mississippi – as the Bulldogs took on No. 2 South Carolina. Baseball had a school-record eight games of 10,000 or more in attendance, including the second-largest on-campus Super Regional crowd in NCAA history and the second-largest on-campus regular season crowd in NCAA history.
Other marketing highlights include:
— Creation of the first official, custom emoji keyboard in college athletics in a partnership with Snaps that is available for iOS and Android mobile devices.
— Launch of the Davis Wade Stadium north scoreboard projection screen system.
— Record growth in MSU’s Maroon Memories, Hail State Rewards and Bully’s Kids Club programs.
— Record 15,000 at “Cowbell Yell” while shattering a Guinness World Record for most people ringing cowbells simultaneously.
“I am extremely proud of what Leah and our marketing team have accomplished,” Wetherbee said.
“It’s been a total team effort in our external department in helping market the Mississippi State brand. When I arrived here three years ago, I told Leah and our marketing department this was possible with hard work and dedication. We are excited to see what the future holds as we continue to promote Mississippi State,” he said.
MSU’s marketing team is led by Wetherbee and Beasley and includes Director of Fan Engagement Danielle Smith, Assistant Directors Rhett Hobart and Jake Amodio, Graduate Assistants Allie Ewing and Spencer McAnally and several dedicated students. Former MSU employees Shelby Fisher (presently at Colorado State), Daniel Watkins (now at California) and Ashley Strauss (now with the Tennessee Titans) contributed to the team’s efforts during the 2015-16 athletic year.
Now in its fifth year, the nominations for the MTOYA spanned across FBS, FCS, and Division I-AAA institutions. The award was created to show the type of impact that a marketing team has not only on the athletics department, but the campus and surrounding communities as well. The selection committee was made up of NACMA past presidents, as well as two NACDA past presidents.
Learn more about athletics at Mississippi State at HailState.com.
