Tennessee State, Vanderbilt Receive 2022-23 CSC ChangeMaker Innovation Awards
College Sports Information Directors of America
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Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University earn recognition for their innovative projects and initiatives created during the 2022-23 academic year. This is the third year of the CSC ChangeMaker Innovation Award honors.
by Barb Kowal – CSC Director of Professional Development and External Affairs
Athletic communications staffs (and colleagues) from Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University were selected as recipients of the 2022-23 College Sports Communicators (CSC) ChangeMaker Innovation Award for their creative work projects during the academic year.
This is the third year for this CSC award, recognizes individual members or departments who have created and managed innovative content during the current academic year. The purpose is to recognize forward-thinkers who bring new ideas to life — and strengthen the position of sports communicators and creatives and their work — with special content, a branding and messaging campaign, new storyteller packages, social media initiatives, a digital series and other initiatives.
Ironically, both of this year's winning athletic departments are located in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Tennessee State initiative, submitted by Nicholas Guerriero, assistant AD / communications & creative content, was entitled “Dreaming About the Ville.” This campaign was a football-focused initiative, as TSU, a HBCU Division I Football Championship Series program located in Nashville, plays in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) and has had success with nearly 130 players selected in the NFL Draft.
With a new coach (Hall of Famer Eddie George), a limited HBCU budget and limited transfer portal success, the goal with the “Dreaming of the Ville” campaign was to elevate social media content and engagement to help tell the stories of TSU’s football program and student-athletes. Tennessee State restructured its communications office to boost the football program profile.
The content team, called “Team Reflex”, collaborated closely with the coaching staff to showcase the program's strengths and highlight exciting opportunities for recruits. Team Reflex also dedicated itself to producing engaging content for fans, such as behind-the-scenes footage, better storytelling with enhanced player interviews and game highlights and a new graphics package.
The Vanderbilt entry was a unique, collaborative and creative idea to promote Hilinski's Hope/Mental Health Awareness Campaign, a college football initiative to raise awareness and funds to raise college student-athlete mental health awareness and resources. The entry was submitted by Michael Scholl, the Commodores' football communications director. In conjunction with the annual Hilinski's Hope game against Ole Miss on Oct. 8, 2022, Vanderbilt coupled social content with in-venue messaging, partnering with Ole Miss to promote mental health resources.
The Hilinski's Hope Foundation was created by Mark and Kym Hilinski in 2018 after their son, Tyler, a quarterback for Washington State, died by suicide. As part of their efforts, they began "College Football Mental Health Week," initially reaching out to football programs to help raise awareness and erase stigmas surrounding mental health, as football was the sport their sons played.
Vanderbilt and Ole Miss play one of the longest running football series in the South. To partner together for such an important message demonstrated a care for student-athletes well beyond the football field.
The ChangeMaker contest is open to any current CS individual member or team of college athletics communications professionals. If they collaborated on an initiative with department or campus/conference colleagues, the initiative had to include at least one current CSC member who was integral to the project.
“As CSC continues to advance under its new name and vision, these award winners are demonstrating how they are living out our collective brand through strategic content and collaboration,” said Erik Christianson, CSC executive director. "These communications campaigns and their impacts are inspirational and show how our members are utilizing the latest tools to tell both exciting and meaningful stories to support college sports."
Here is a closer look at the Changemaker Award recipients for 2023-23.
Tennessee State University: Dreaming About the Ville campaign
Submitted by: Nicholas Guerriero, Assistant AD / Communications & Creative Content
Project Developers from TSU’s “Team Reflex”: Stephen Featherston, Assistant Director of Communications; Joe Masterson, Creative Content Coordinator; Aaron Quinn, Creative Content graduate assistant
To add a creative content element that would not only focus on football, help elevate the entire department and compete with nationally-ranked FCS programs as well as high-major FBS teams, the Tennessee State athletic department created a social media and creative campaign — Dreaming About the Ville — bringing visuals to the forefront (graphics, videos, photography) and enhancing overall fan engagement at Nissan Stadium, all while using a limited HBCU budget.
From Guerriero’s nomination: “Tennessee State football program is one of the prominent and well-respected programs in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). The program has a rich history and tradition of success, and the upcoming 2023 season is expected to be no different. To ensure continued success, the athletic communications department developed a strategic plan to assist player development and recruiting to land top talent and increase social media engagement with potential football recruits from across the US.
Eddie George, a former Heisman Trophy winner, College Football Hall of Fame member and legendary Tennessee Titan, is in his third season at TSU. After being hired on April 13, 2021, George took over a program that had difficulty recruiting national talent and struggled to secure top talent through the transfer portal.”
To combat this, Tennessee State restructured its communications office to boost the football program profile. The content team collaborated closely with the coaching staff to showcase the program's strengths and highlight the opportunities that recruits can benefit from. Additionally, the team dedicated itself to producing engaging content for fans, such as behind-the-scenes footage, player interviews, and game highlights.
Keeping this objective in perspective, Dr. Mikki Allen, the director of athletics at TSU, along Guerriero, introduced "Team Reflex." This collaborative effort integrates communication, media relations, creative content, and broadcasting to effectively execute Coach George's visual recruiting strategy.
Guerriero recruited Aaron Quinn, a graduate assistant, to fulfill the role of dedicated content manager for football. As part of the program's strategic plans, Quinn collaborated with the football recruiting office to devise "Dreaming About the Ville" and "Nashville Awaits" slogans, among others. These campaigns generated excitement around the program and highlighted the distinctive opportunities that Nashville and Tennessee State have to offer.
To implement the strategic plan, the recruiting team focused on high-caliber prospects and social media influencers from various regions of the country, informing prospective players about the opportunity to make a quick impact at an HBCU school while simultaneously attracting NFL attention. (Note: TSU has a proud history of 122 NFL draft selectees.)
As a part of the recruitment process, Team Reflex undertook the revitalization of the football locker room at Nissan Stadium, to pay homage to TSU's former football legends who had played in the NFL, along with Hall of Famers and top draft picks such as Ed "Too Tall" Jones, the first pick of the 1974 NFL Draft. Additionally, Quinn conceptualized and designed the university's first-ever equipment truck wrap. This wrap highlights TSU's football greats from the John Merritt era up to its current student-athletes.
The outcome of these efforts: an increase in TSU football's social media following, with 40,000+ followers on Twitter and Instagram. This has translated into the program attracting higher-level prospects, who are drawn to the opportunity of not only making an impact on the field but also exploring NIL opportunities off the field.
Vanderbilt University: Hilinski's Hope/Mental Health Awareness Campaign and football initiative in partnership with opponent Ole Miss
Submitted by: Michael Scholl, Vanderbilt Director, Football Communications
Vanderbilt Lead Project Developers: Kaelene Curry, Vanderbilt Director, Football Mental Performance; Alyssa Leonard, Vanderbilt Associate Athletic Director, Marketing; Brendan Ross, Vanderbilt Senior Lead, Football Social Media; Michael Scholl, Vanderbilt Director, Football Communications; Bailey Wheeler, Vanderbilt Football graphic designer
Additional Project Participants: Marlon Bailey, Vanderbilt University Counseling Center; Jacob Brown, Ole Miss Football Video; Will Day, Ole Miss Football Video; Zach Hamman, Ole Miss Assistant Athletics Director for Creative Content; Truman McDaniel, Vanderbilt photographer; Josie Nicholson, PhD, Ole Miss Assistant Athletics Director for Sport Psychology; and Trent Pearson, Director of Football Equipment (Vanderbilt); Sarah Campbell, Vanderbilt Football Assistant Video Coordinator
*(Editor’s note: The Hilinski's Hope Foundation announced in late May that it has expanded its reach beyond football and changed "College Football Mental Health Week" to "Student Athlete Mental Health Week," a rebranding founders Mark and Kym Hilinski believe better serves their message: prioritizing mental health for all collegiate athletes.)*
In conjunction with the annual Vanderbilt-Ole Miss Hilinski's Hope football game on Oct. 8, 2022, Vanderbilt’s communications and creative team coupled social content with in-venue messaging and partnered with Ole Miss to promote mental health resources.
Hilinski’s Hope Foundation was started by the parents of the late Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski, who took his own life in January 2018 following his junior season.
The campaign included a joint video of student-athletes from Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, with a member of each team sharing on-campus resources for their fellow students. The video was played in-venue and shared on social media, along with resources and statistics around mental health.
In partnership with Hilinski's Hope, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss both wore helmet stickers and Vandy's marketing team distributed campaign materials on the stadium concourse. Information was incorporated into the weekly marketing gameday information email distributed to all ticket holders. In-game during the third quarter, fans were asked to hold up three fingers at the start of the third quarter in recognition of Tyler Hilinski who wore the number three as Washington State quarterback.
As with all innovative content, true collaboration was essential and required assistance from multiple staff members from both schools (they are all listed above).
The effort required the coordination of multiple departments, including Vandy’s mental performance, the University Counseling Center, social media, content, communications, marketing, live video and football equipment. In addition, Vandy’s team collaborated with sport psychology and football content staff from Ole Miss.
Bigger than football ??#MentalHealthMatters pic.twitter.com/7jBx2V21t0
For the October 8, 2022 game between SEC opponents Vandebilt and Ole Miss, both schools collaborated to raise awareness and funds for mental health wellness, campus resources, and to erase the stigma of mental illness.
For the October 8, 2022 game between SEC opponents Vandebilt and Ole Miss, both schools collaborated to raise awareness and funds for mental health wellness, campus resources, and to erase the stigma of mental illness.