Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: McMaster University

Title of entry: NEUDOSE: Inside McMaster’s First Space Mission

About this entry: In March 2023, a satellite the size of a toaster that measures harmful space radiation was launched into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. This launch was the culmination of over eight years of work by more than 150 McMaster students, researchers and alumni. When the McMaster Communications team heard about this story, we recognized that it presented us with a unique opportunity to promote both research and experiential learning that happens on McMaster’s campus while engaging our internal and external target audiences.

This recognition led to an extensive communications and marketing campaign that leveraged traditional and multimedia storytelling, as well as earned, paid and social media, to tell the story of NEUDOSE and engage local, national and international audiences. We produced one landing page, six articles, five videos (with social media companions), a full suite of graphics and additional social media content. Coverage also included sending a videographer with the team to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center for the launch. An integrated marketing campaign, including video, animated programmatic and social ads, as well as a dedicated newsletter sent to 30,000 researchers across the world, followed shortly after with the goal of strengthening McMaster’s reputation for educational excellence on a global scale.

In total, our social media posts reached more than 65 million users, with an additional 7 million impressions through our paid media campaign and an earned media reach of more than 20 million.