Best of CASE District III Award
 

Institution: Georgia College & State University

Title of entry: Where bison roamed: Paleontological dig shows a different Georgia

About this entry: The Georgia College & State University bison package was a unique opportunity to tell a story that not only celebrated the human element—reflecting well on our biology faculty and students—but delved into a subject most people would find interesting: The unlikely unearthing of bison and mammoth bones in the swampy, seaside marshes of Southeastern Georgia.

It's a story of discovery, perseverance and collaboration among universities, as well as climate change and survival.

For this package, we sent a small team (writer and video producer) overnight to the paleontological dig site in Brunswick, Georgia. The extra effort produced show-not-tell details in the writing, while giving the video specialist opportunity to capture the dirt and sweat nature of the dig.

The carefully crafted writing was supplemented by photos, video and social media. This helped entice media beyond the Central Georgia area. In addition to pictures and polished video, the press release included 3 minutes of raw footage for TV use.

The newswire was picked up by more than 350 news outlets with a potential audience of 186 million. The press release garnered the usually flurry of regional media but was also picked up by state newspapers like the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Savannah Morning News. The story was shared on Facebook, Instagram and Linked In and generated over 12,000 impressions and 5200 views. We had an additional 2,000 views on Vimeo. With only 86K total followers at the time, we reached over 14% of our total social media audience with the piece.