Andrew Careaga’s work demonstrated outstanding leadership skills, an extraordinary ability to address the challenges of re-naming and re-branding an institution, and an exceptional understanding of new-media marketing and public relations in higher education.
Andrew Careaga is 2009′s International Brand Master.
Andrew Careaga
Director of Communications, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Andrew’s credentials included the following:
- His success in renaming the University of Missouri-Rolla to Missouri University of Science and Technology and the quick timeframe in which it was done;
- His strategy and accomplishments in rebranding of the university as a top national technological university;
- His strategic and effective utilization of new media including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, http://namechange.mst.edu/;
- His clear and distinct brand strategy, messaging, and imagery used in marketing the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Andrew also received strong support from marketing professionals voting for him as their choice for the 2009 International Brand Master. Each finalist was given a short period of time to prepare a public statement of why they would be a good choice for the Award when they were notified of their finalist status. Here is a reprise of Andrew’s statement:
Over the past two-plus years, Andrew has led a campus wide rebranding effort as the campus formerly known as the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) became Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). The name change was a substantial rebranding that occurred in a very short time frame (at least by higher ed standards). As part of the rebranding, Andrew and the entire communications team embraced social media to address controversies surrounding the name change (through the “name change conversations” blog http://namechange.mst.edu) and to relaunch the university as one that is truly among the nation’s distinctive technological universities. Missouri S&T was one of the first to embrace micro-blogging site Twitter, setting up its account (http://twitter.com/MissouriSandT) in December 2007. This led to social media higher ed consultant to label Andy “the Nostradamus of Higher Ed Twitter” in a March 2009 blog post (http://squaredpeg.com/index.php/2009/03/27/twitter-higher-ed/).
