Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: McMaster University

Title of entry: Back-to-Mac

About this entry: Starting in the Spring of 2021, McMaster started moving into a new phase of COVID-19 communications, switching from acute crisis to starting the transition to the gradual return.

This meant a needed change in tone and messaging from strictly health and safety to welcoming our community back to campus and offering them comfort and support throughout this transition.

To do this, we created an ongoing, cohesive campaign dubbed "Back-to-Mac." The first phase of this multi-pronged initiative included the reimagining of our COVID-19 website. Aside from a new look and feel, more than 150 news updates were posted to our website to keep the community abreast of constantly evolving information from vaccination clinics to guidelines to stories of the return to campus life.  

The site has been a critical resource with over 371k users visiting the site in 2021, resulting in 1.1 million total page views. 

A dedicated Back-to-Mac communications group was formed and met weekly to ensure collaboration and coordination with Faculty communications leads and other central service units.
 
A series of coordinated Back-to-Mac social campaigns, including a marquee welcome video, were launched on a range of topics to raise awareness of everything from resources for students, faculty and staff to welcoming our community last Fall. 
 
On campus branding, supported by our marketing team, brought the experience to life as students, faculty and staff were greeted with banners. Many diverse stakeholders across campus adopted Back-to-Mac in their branding and messaging, offering a united and collaborative front during a fraught time.