Two Wisconsin School of Business teams won awards for their submissions to a competition on building the Wisconsin School of Business brand.

The submissions were presented May 9 as part of an initiative known as Project Brandwoven™. For more than a year, faculty and staff of the Wisconsin School of Business participated in seminars on how to build the strength of the school’s brand to allow it to better compete with other top business schools.

The effort culminated in the school-wide competition, which was designed to encourage sharing of best practices among units and members of the school. Seven finalists made submissions to a panel of experts on branding and communications from inside and outside the Wisconsin School of Business.

The top award for overall achievement, the “Be Out in Front” award, went to a school wide team that took a cross functional approach to improve the orientation given new school employees. Its recommendations were based in part on responses to a survey the team sent to individuals hired by the school within the past four years. Several tactics to communicate the brand from point of first contact with potential employees were outlined. The same entry also won the “People’s Choice Award,” which was voted on by all those who attended the May 9 event. The team was composed of Binnu Palta Hill, Steve Schroeder, Cheryl Schroud, Jeremy Sherman, Jennifer Smet, Lori Strelow and Julie Tran.

A presentation by the Alumni Relations unit of the school won the “Most Creative Award” for its submission on how brand communication can strengthen connections with alumni. Team members were Elesha Belke, Kristin Branch, Richard Lee, Kaylene Reilly and Alisa Robertson.

Other units who made the finals were the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research, Business Career Center, Center for Brand and Product Management, Marketing Services and the MBA Program Office.

PowerPoint presentations of the finalists, photos of the day’s events and other information can be found at the Project Brandwoven website: http://www.bus.wisc.edu/brandwoven/

Posted in Faculty-Staff News