AU’s Communications and Marketing office hopes to start an annual tradition with AU’s second holiday video card to be aired in mid-December.
The filming of the video will occur during the “AU Wishes” holiday event Thursday, Nov. 17 on the Quad from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Throughout the day, an AU film crew will record students talking about their holiday wishes.
“Our community is such an activist community and such an engaged community, so they all have different things that they would wish for the world, so it gives an opportunity to not just wish people a happy holidays but wish for things that are important to them,” Assistant Vice President for Marketing Deborah Wiltrout said.
The AU Choir may sing during filming to create a more festive mood, Wiltrout said. The event organizers will also serve hot chocolate and cookies, while students sign the approximately 20-by-8-foot AU Wishes card and share their holiday wishes on camera.
The department will also give away 250 limited-edition AU Holiday Wishes T-shirts at 3 p.m. during the group holiday photograph with AU President Neil Kerwin, Ann Kerwin and AU’s mascot Clawed Z Eagle.
“Our hope is to get the AU community together in one big group shot for the end shot as a way to build community spirit and togetherness,” Associate Director of Media Relations Maralee Csellar said.
University Communications and Marketing is collaborating with various offices such as Alumni Relations, the President's Office and the athletic department to prepare for the holiday card.
“We’re doing everything in house,” Wiltrout said.
2010 holiday card viewed 15,000 times
Wiltrout and her department decided to create another holiday video after last year’s success.
“[Last year’s video] really went viral,” Wiltrout said.
The Web page received more than 15,000 views from 100 different countries. The video card was also named one of the Top Higher Ed Holiday Cards of 2010 by collegewebeditor.com, a site about online marketing and public relations in higher education.
The marketing department came up with the idea to create a video card last year based on President Neil Kerwin’s traditional print holiday card.
“We thought that a video holiday card would enable us to expand the reach of his holiday card, so we’re able to send it out to everybody in our AU community: students, faculty, staff, alumni, prospective students and parents,” Wiltrout said.
This year, AU’s message is more than “Happy Holidays.”
“We want our AU community to have sense of pride about the institution,” Csellar said. “It allows people who don’t know AU to get a sense of who we are.”
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