Wednesday, June 11, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (June 11, 2008) - The National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) selected its 2007-08 award winners earlier this week, and ETSU received the silver award for the women's basketball single-day attendance promotion.

Earlier in the year, the ETSU marketing department and Mountain States Health Alliance teamed up to create the slogan "02-02 at 2: Two Teams, One Fight...Women against Heart Disease," which aligned with the Lady Buccaneer/Kennesaw State contest on Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. inside Memorial Center.

The special day was filled with several activities as a "Go Red Dress Event" jump started the festivities, followed by a 2 p.m. tip between the Lady Bucs and Kennesaw State where the ETSU players, staff and fans all wore red to show their support for heart disease. Then, after the game, the ETSU women's basketball team hosted a free basketball clinic for children in attendance.

This promotion was a joint effort with the NCAA "Pack the House" marketing effort, which was designed to have each school come up with a creative marketing plan and sellout or increase their previous year's single-game record attendance. The "Red Dress Event" was very successful as 1,236 Lady Buccaneer fans filled the seats inside Memorial Center to watch ETSU defeat Kennesaw State, 81-77; breaking the all-time single-game attendance mark of 1,117.

"I am very grateful that our Red Dress Event was recognized by the NACMA organization and IMG," commented ETSU's Marketing and Promotions Coordinator Sara Hacker. "It's a very proud day for the people who helped organize the Red Dress function; including Mountain States Health Alliance and ETSU athletics. I hope by winning this award it still helps create awareness for heart disease and that we are able to make the event much larger in the years to come."

Joining ETSU in the awards group was Wichita State (Gold) and Xavier University (Bronze).

Initiated in 2003, the NACMA Awards program honors outstanding achievement in marketing and promotions. Awards are presented in 18 categories, with each category divided into three groups based upon school size and conference affiliations to promote fairness. A total of 1300 entries were received for the 2007-08 year.

The winners were presented their awards during NACMA's 17th Annual Convention, June 9-12 in Dallas, Texas. The awards ceremony occurred today, Tuesday, June 10.

About NACMA: NACMA is the first organization of its kind to provide educational and networking opportunities; enhancement of acceptable operating standards and ethics; and establishment of the overall prestige and understanding of the profession of athletics marketing administrators. For more information about NACMA, please visit www.nacma.com. NACMA is administered by NACDA. In its 42nd year, NACDA is the professional and educational association for more than 6,100 college athletics administrators at more than 1,600 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. More than 2,000 athletics administrators annually attend the NACDA Convention. Additionally, NACDA administers 10 professional associations for the separate business units that report directly to the athletics director. See the following pages for the top-three place finishers in all 16 categories.