Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Los Angeles

Title of entry: Welcoming UCLA’s New Chancellor: Julio Frenk

About this entry: When UCLA announced Julio Frenk as its next chancellor in June 2024, our Office of Strategic Communications launched a comprehensive campaign to introduce him to the Bruin community and beyond. Our goal was to build excitement for his historic appointment as UCLA’s seventh—and first Latino—chancellor while ensuring a seamless leadership transition. With his official start date on January 7, 2025, our team had six months to generate momentum.

We learned of his appointment only hours before it was publicly announced, marking the start of our campaign. Key moments included:
Appointment announcement, including a Spanish-language version
Press conference live and on Zoom with local and national reporters
Welcome and biography website pages
Inclusion in Time’s “Latino Leaders 2024” list
Red-carpet event celebrating his leadership alongside other distinguished figures
A UCLA Magazine feature introducing Chancellor Frenk and his partner, Dr. Felicia Knaul
UCLA’s year-end holiday video
Paid social media campaign

Central to our strategy for the incoming chancellor’s first day was a campuswide message in Chancellor Frenk’s voice, paired with an introductory video planned for early January. Our efforts spanned various platforms:
Pre-recorded welcome video
Social media storytelling and paid media, including a social media toolkit for campus partners
Chancellor website refresh + two separate webpages
Strategic media outreach and Spanish content

These efforts built familiarity and trust in UCLA’s new chancellor before he took office, which proved to be critical — in just the second week of his tenure, wildfires broke out in L.A., and our community looked to him for leadership.