Related Content
•
CoSIDA.com/CoSIDA360 Archive
Pictured above: The Austin Peay communications and creative staff includes three individuals with creative roles who are not CoSIDA members in 2021-22. In 2022-23 under the All-In Membership model, schools like Austin Peay will be able to include their full staff for one group rate. In APSU's case, they will save $75 from what they paid this year, and their creative staff will have the opportunity to become involved in CoSIDA. Learn more about All-In here.
This story is part of our February 2022 CoSIDA 360 package, to view more stories,
click here.
Strategic and Creative Communicators at Austin Peay Make a Great Team
Austin Peay uses a collaborative approach with its strategic and creative communications staff to the benefit of Governors' student-athletes and fans.
by Cody Bush – Austin Peay State University, Assistant Director of Athletics Strategic Communications and Branding @cody_br_bush
Covering the spectrum of outlets available to a communications office today is not an easy task. It’s not made easier because each outlet (radio, television, website, social media, etc.) has its own quirks about what works best in that medium. Tack on a landscape that changes every day with differing opinions not only on the necessity of an external communications office but also how it should be staffed and these are difficult times in our profession.
First off, I’ll admit we’re fortunate at Austin Peay. We’ve had a string of athletics directors not only believe athletics is the “front porch of the university” but have put resources into our external communications office to ensure the front porch is well maintained.
The "why" we do what we do in our offices is simple, we don’t have a television station in Clarksville, our newspaper coverage has decreased, and our radio station covers our games and a coaches show. So our reality is we have to be all of those things for our fans. To that end I’ve even begun referring to all of our various outlets as the ‘Governors Family of Networks’ because that’s what we want them to become for our fans. It’s about being in those spaces and providing information and content that interests them enough to check out our other offerings.
The 2022 Austin Peay communications and creative staff includes (l to r): Director of Video Production Robyn White, Director of Digital Media Eric Elliot, Athletics Communications Assistant Alex Allard, Assistant AD of Athletics Strategic Communications and Branding Cody Bush, Creative Media Assistant Carder Henry, Assistant AD of Athletics Communications Casey Crigger and Director of Athletics Communications Nathan Palcowski.
Regarding content we provide we’re always tinkering with our formula because there isn’t a perfect solution anymore. It’s about finding the best way to get the message across in the platform you’re using. For example, Casey Crigger, our women’s basketball contact uses an infographic as part of his postgame coverage. It is something we’ve used off and on because it works on social media and gives users the option to visit our website to find out more.
As for written recaps, I encourage creativity as a traditional recap has become something our younger fans believes is TL;DR (‘too long; didn’t read’ in Reddit parlance) while our more established fans enjoy reading the traditional recap. Even I’ve played around with different formats in an effort to keep the traditional recap as short as possible and adding sections to dive deeper into the game.
How we accomplish all of this has evolved rapidly. When I started at Austin Peay in 1999 it was the first time APSU had two full-time athletics communications staffers. Since then we’ve been fortunate to hire a third full-timer in communications and add full time staff for graphics, creative video, and ESPN+. While that is still a small office in some regards, we understand that the five of us, plus two interns, have to keep Austin Peay in front of our fans, alumni and the public.
That’s not to say its perfect collaboration, but we understand that what one person does will affect the way someone else does their job and try our best to keep everyone in the loop on projects. It certainly can’t be communications versus video versus graphics, we all have to be on the same page of music to make the symphony work.
And, having everyone on the same page is the ultimate objective from the top down. Leadership has to buy in that external communications is necessary to ensure that a department’s message is delivered to its fans. For most of us in smaller markets, external media is slowly losing its place at the top of the food chain and our own public-facing products are taking their place. If that buy-in is established at the top then building a team working toward the same goal is possible.
Talk about these stories on the
CoSIDA Slack Community.