Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: Western University

Title of entry: Bioarcheologist comes face to face with King Tut

About this entry: In an effort to bring attention to the international significance of research at Western University, a team of communications professionals created a multimedia feature story highlighting a project involving the reconstruction of King Tutankhamun’s face.

Renowned Western bioarcheologist Andrew Nelson was commissioned to participate in this new reconstruction following a recommendation from a professor of radiology at Cairo University who was trained at Western. The government-sanctioned international collaboration marked the centennial of Howard Carter’s opening of King Tut’s tomb and was featured in a two-part PBS documentary.

Using CT scans of King Tut’s mummy and 3D bioimaging software, Nelson helped to create a virtual model of his skull, which was transformed into a physical, artistic facial reconstruction, inspired by Egyptology and Egyptian art.

To bring attention to Nelson’s contribution to this historically significant work, a team, led by senior media relations officer Jeff Renaud, produced a powerful written feature including striking behind-the-scenes photographs; a video to embed within the story and for social media and to create a homepage banner.

The story and video also formed the basis of pitches to media.

The story was wildly successful on Western’s YouTube channel with more than 30,000 views to-date. The story also performed better than average across all social media channels and was clicked on more than 1,700 times on the university’s news website.

The story also led to international media attention, including mentions in The Mirror and The Telegraph in the U.K. and Al-Ahram, the most widely circulated Egyptian daily newspaper.