Sports Marketing Captures Two National Awards – University of Hawai’i at Manoa Athletics

ORLANDO, Fla. – For the third consecutive year the University of Hawai’i athletics marketing department received national recognition from the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) convention taking home awards in the categories of Fundraising and Game Day Experience. Marking three consecutive years the department has been recognized by NACMA with national awards, including four awards over the last three years.
 
The department captured GOLD status in the Fundraising category for the second consecutive year with its “sUHrf City” promotion with women’s basketball. In the summer of 2024, the department announced the first ever team worn, fan design uniform contest in partnership with “Athletics Admin”. The campaign received national attention on social media with Uni Watch, and proceeded to receive 140 submissions from 26 different states, and five different countries. The selection process narrowed it down to eight finalists, where voting was collected on social media platforms X and Instagram to bringing it down to four, before an internal committee with student-athletes coaches and others picked the “sUHrf City” design submitted by Issac Daggett of Colorado. The Rainbow Wahine wore the jersey on January 25th for “Beeman’s Bigger Bash”, while the uniforms were being promoted with a live auction over the weekend. The auction brought in $24,000 in net profit with fans and supporters alike purchasing a piece of college basketball and UH history.
 
UH Marketing picked up GOLD status in the Game Experience category with their unique spin on culture with the “Mixed Plate Series” spanning women’s volleyball, men’s volleyball, and baseball. The year long campaign clarified culture isn’t PR in Hawai’i, it’s a way of living as several cultures and heritages were celebrated at numerous matches and games. Promotions included Olelo Hawai’i, Pinoy Day, Chinese New Year, Banzai Weekend and many others. Each promotion of the series included its own unique experience including secondary public address announcer for different languages, various contests for fans to participate in, planning performances, and much more. The series saw a spike in sales as ticket numbers increased by 21% on weekends or weekdays that center around the promotional series in a year by year comparison, including positive response from fans during and after the events.
 
“It’s great to receive recognition from our peers and for them to notice the hard work our entire department is putting in to be creatively different,” said Director of Marketing and Fan Experience Eric Mathews. “While it’s nice, we need to keep improving our overall product. Fans in Hawai’i work hard, and spend their hard earned money wisely. They want a great experience and have very high expectations. We enjoy it because we know the fans are engaged and want to be involved. We’re going to keep trying new things to make sure our fans stay involved, and most importantly have fun.”
 
Fans are welcome to follow on X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok as future promotions will be shared, including giveaways and specialized campaigns during the 2025-2026 sports season. Promotions with descriptions will also be available on team specific schedule pages on hawaiiathletics.com so fans are informed about to what expect with their favorite teams.

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