Southern Arkansas University’s 2012 feature promotional video, “Mulerider Style,” was awarded “Best in Show” honors in the 10th Annual Service Industry Advertising Awards.
The video, directed and produced by SAU’s Department of Communications Director Aaron Street and videographer Michael Kornegay, a senior digital media production major from Hot Springs, features SAU students, athletes, faculty and staff and parodies Korean rapper PSY’s mega-hit “Gangnum Style.”
The 6-minute video project features international student Terence Lee, of Malaysia, and SAU’s mule mascot Molly B and Mulerider Megan Maye, of Hatfield. It was completed in two weeks and reached over 41,500 YouTube views within weeks of its public unveiling in November 2012. It can be viewed on YouTube or at www.saumag.edu/riderstyle.
The national advertising and marketing competition pitted SAU’s Communications Department against 1,000 institutions like Purdue University, YMCA of Metropolitan Washington D.C., New York Institute of Technology and Las Vegas Marriott resorts, as well as 400 advertising agencies around the nation.
SIAA is the only advertising awards specifically recognizing achievements within the service industry, of which higher education is an integral part. The awards were started in 2003 to recognize the significant contributions to marketing and advertising made by entities within the service industry. A national panel of judges reviewed every entry for execution, creativity, quality, consumer appeal and overall break through advertising content. “The Best of Show” awards were given in nine categories to projects that exhibited outstanding creative execution from among the more than 2,000 entries.
