Kansas Wesleyan’s “We’re Back” video from August 2020 has been named a Communicator Award winner, according to information released this week by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts. KWU received an Award of Distinction in the non-profit category.
Other organizations to earn the Award of Distinction included Michigan State University, the Baltimore County Public Library, the Journal of the American Medical Association, AccuWeather and the city of Surrey, England. Winners of the group’s top honor, the Award of Excellence, included Forbes, UFC, PepsiCo, Comcast and others.
“We’re Back,” shot and produced by former campus videographer Franco Rivas ’15, commemorated KWU’s journey back to on-campus classes and activities following the tumultuous Spring 2020 semester, when classes were shifted online due to COVID-19.
“Any time you win an award like this, it’s a special experience,” said Brad Salois, KWU’s director of Marketing and Communications (MARCOM). “Franco did a fantastic job on this project, and it really became a motivational symbol of where we were as a campus, everything we’d experienced and our excitement at returning to Salina. It helped set the tone for a great school year.”
Rivas was recently named video editor for Major League Soccer’s D.C. United, and an extensive search is underway for his successor in Kansas Wesleyan’s MARCOM office.
To see “We’re Back,” please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJe6R_vtQHk&t=18s.
To learn more about the Communicator Awards, visit http://www.communicatorawards.com.
ABOUT THE COMMUNICATOR AWARDS: The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for marketing and communications professionals. Founded by passionate communications professionals over two decades ago, The Communicator Awards is an annual competition honoring the best digital, mobile, audio, video, and social content the industry has to offer. The Communicator Awards is widely recognized as one of the largest awards of its kind in the world. They are judged and curated by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA). The AIVA is an assembly of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current AIVA membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: GE Digital, Spotify, Condè Nast, Disney, Republica, Majestyk, Fast Company, Upstatement, and many others. See aiva.org for more information.
