Top marketing / PR award for University of Stirling’s Scottish Cup campaign

The University of Stirling has won a top national award for its communications and marketing campaign celebrating the recent success of its history-making men’s football team.

Stirling won Marketing / Public Relations Campaign of the Year at the prestigious Herald Higher Education Awards in recognition of its high-profile campaign around the football team’s Scottish Cup run, which resulted in a ‘David versus Goliath’ fourth round tie against Dundee United.

The campaign also won Low Budget Campaign at the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) DARE Awards - a category that was hotly contested by some of the nation's biggest PR firms. 

A collaboration between the University’s communications, marketing, social media, sport, and alumni teams and the Students’ Union, the multifaceted campaign – fronted by football legends Sir Alex Ferguson, Lilian Thuram and Craig Brown – received widespread coverage. BBC Sportscene, BBC Reporting Scotland and STV News were among the mainstream media outlets to cover the story, and the campaign helped drive more than 1,000 Stirling supporters to the historic match in Dundee.

James Berry, club captain (second from left) and Greg Christison, University of Stirling Communications Manager (third from left), are presented with the Marketing / Public Relations Campaign of the Year award by award presenter and judge Stephen Crowe (left) and host Bryan Burnett (right).

The Herald award was presented to Greg Christison, University of Stirling Communications Manager, and James Berry, captain of the football team, at a ceremony at the Radisson Blu in Glasgow. The PRCA award was presented to Jennifer Harrison, Executive Director of Communications, Marketing and Recruitment at the University, Mr Christison and Russell Akers, Senior Creative and Digital Designer, at a ceremony at the Sheraton Grand in Edinburgh.

Russell Akers (second from left), Greg Christison (middle), and Jennifer Harrison were presented with the PRCA DARE Award for Low Budget Campaign.

Jennifer Harrison, Executive Director of Communications, Marketing and Recruitment at the University, said: “I am incredibly proud that our talented team at the University has won these two coveted awards.

“This was a very exciting project to be involved in, as we celebrated the phenomenal success of our student footballers, drove ticket sales with more than 1,000 Stirling fans travelling to Dundee for the historic match, and underlined Stirling’s longstanding designation as Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence.

“Our campaign ‘Recruiting the 12^th man’ was a brilliant example of how successfully colleagues collaborate at Stirling. It involved many teams from across the University and delivered brilliant results with widespread and prominent media coverage, endorsement from sporting icons, and excellent brand visibility on the day of the match. We are delighted to receive this prestigious recognition.”