Marketing and Communications

We provide leadership, guidance and oversight to elevate marketing and communications efforts for all of the units within Student Life. By working closely with units from the onset of a project through implementation, we ensure communications excellence.

Our communications team assist units in navigating their marketing and communications results; including developing powerful communications strategies, conceiving new ideas through brainstorming sessions, creating compelling messaging, and executing student-facing campaigns cost-effectively.

In addition, as ambassadors of university brand standards, we guide units in best practices, to effectively promote and position the university while providing outstanding student services.

From multi-media marketing campaigns to 200-page websites, we create highly effective marketing and communications solutions for top-level Student Life initiatives throughout UB.

Our process includes developing communications strategies, creating original concepts and content, managing full production of the creative materials, and then stewarding each project or campaign for optimal results. From brainstorming and creative direction through message creation and execution, we apply our experience and expertise to help ensure that projects are handled efficiently and effectively.

We work in a wide range of mediums, including print, video, photography, environmental graphics and wearables. We are also highly experienced in digital media, including the UB Content Management System (CMS) and today’s most popular social media channels.

• 2024 SUNYCUAD Awards of Excellence: Strategy and Design categories
• 2024 UB Communicators Award: Best in Category – Campaign – Bulls Welcome Back Blast Drone Spectacular
• 2024 UB Communicators Award: Best in Category – Environmental – Startup and Innovation Collaboratory
  
• 2023  Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) MarCom Finalist "A True Blue Year: Student Life Divisional Highlight 2021-2022" 
  
• 2023 CASE Circle of Excellence Bronze and Best of District II Awards in Publications | President's Reports & Annual Reports
  
• 2023 UB Communicators Blue Bell Award: Best in Category - Videos
• 2022 SUNYCUAD Awards of Excellence: Marketing; and Programs categories
• 2021 CASE Circle of Excellence
• 2021 SUNYCUAD Awards of Excellence: Advertising; and Print & Design categories
• 2020 SUNYCUAD Awards of Excellence: Advertising; and Events/Campus Community categories

Our leadership and staff collaborate with University Advancement, the UB Alumni Association and Corporate and Foundation Relations, to effectively coordinate donor development, alumni engagement, and sponsorship opportunities within Student Life providing value and support to our many student-centered initiatives.

Each Spring, Student Life Marketing and Communications awards an undergraduate senior student with the Gregory Capasso Memorial Award for Creative Writing. The recipient spends the semester as a student writer/editor within the department and is awarded a stipend for their work.

Qualifications for the award include:

• Desire to pursue a career in writing, editing, marketing, communications or a similar field.
• Posses strong oral, written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to write creative copy in the form of editorial articles, website features, video scripts, promotional marketing materials and more.
• Ability to prioritize effectively and to work independently.

About Gregory Capasso:

Gregory Capasso, a State University of New York at Buffalo student who, after spending a semester studying in England, was returning home on December 21, 1998 with 258 other passengers on Pan American flight #103, when a terrorist bomb caused it to explode over Locherbie, Scotland, killing everyone aboard. Gregory’s friends and family have made gifts sufficient for the endowment of a memorial fund to perpetuate his memory.

2024 - Brandon Fowler-Varon
2023 - Grace Osaba
2022 - Mallory Drews
2020 - Justin Downey
2019 - Paige Barnes