The University of Houston-Victoria took home the biggest prize of the night Saturday at the American Advertising Federation-Victoria ADDY Awards along with 10 other awards for creative advertising and marketing work in 2014.

UHV’s Marketing & Communications Department won Best of Show and a Gold ADDY award for the 2013-2014 Building the Future annual report website, www.uhvannualreport.com.

“Being recognized with the Best of Show ADDY award is a testament to the talented and creative staff members we have working at the university, and the teamwork that goes into preparing the UHV annual report every year,” said Paula Cobler, UHV director of marketing and communications.

In addition, UHV graphic designer George Rodriguez was awarded Best of Print and a Gold ADDY award for a poster he designed promoting the UHV Society for Critical Exchange Winter Theory Institute.

The awards, which were handed out at the annual ADDY Gala inside the Hilton Garden Inn, honored Victoria’s best in advertising and marketing.

The UHV annual report website features videos, highlights from the past school year, enrollment and financial figures, and a photo gallery and video presentations from the annual report dinner in November. Members of UHV Marketing & Communications who worked on the annual report website and event pieces were Cobler; Melody Vecera, creative services manager; Jeremy Shapiro, communications manager; Rodriguez, Shane Blucher and Akalina Sanchez, graphic designers; Lonnie Holcombe, Web developer; Lauren Emerson, communications specialist; and Della Rampley, administrative secretary. Nancy Gresham, UHV special events coordinator; and Michael Cloud, owner of Bright Idea Media, also worked on the project.

Rodriguez won UHV’s first Gold ADDY of the night for a collateral poster featuring a man shackled to the letter b of “debt,” which was the subject for the Society for Critical Exchange event. Jeffrey Di Leo, dean of the UHV School of Arts & Sciences and executive director of the Society for Critical Exchange, assisted with the poster.

“George created an outstanding poster, and I’m elated he received this well-deserved recognition for his hard work,” Vecera said. “I’m pleased to have dedicated graphic designers who bring enthusiasm and professionalism to illustrate the great things happening at UHV.”

Below are the other awards UHV received and the names of the projects:

• Gold Award Collateral Materials Special Event Campaign – 2013-2014 UHV President’s Annual Report & Excellence Awards event
• Gold Award Direct Marketing Campaign – Spring registration direct mail
• Gold Award Out-of-Home Self-Promotion – Make Your Mark billboard campaign
• Silver Award Collateral Publication Design – UHV View Book
• Silver Award Integrated Local Consumer Campaign – Make Your Mark tagline campaign
• Bronze Award Collateral Poster Campaign – UHV/American Book Review Fall Reading Series posters
• Bronze Award Advertising Visual Logo – 2013-2014 annual report logo

The awards are determined by judges based on their professional opinions of the quality of work in that category. A certain set of criteria must be met for an entry to receive each level of award.

The ADDY Awards is a three-tiered national competition conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation. The gold awards UHV won on Saturday will be automatically entered in the District ADDY Awards competition. District winners then compete in the national ADDY Awards competition.

The ADDYs are the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition for creative excellence.