CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Austin Peay State University's athletics marketing department earned a record six National Association of Collegiate Marketing Association (NACMA) honors at the 2025 NACMA Convention, Monday, in Orlando, Florida.

Austin Peay has won multiple NACMA awards in three-straight years, earning four in 2023 and three in 2024. APSU earned gold in the "Community Engagement" category for its work at Clarksville Feeds the World and in the "Affinity Group Marketing" for its I AM campaign.

The Governors also took home silver in the "Sport Specific Brand Campaign" for the baseball program's #BANG and the "Sponsorship Campaign" for the Govs Always Recycle program. Finally, APSU received bronze in the "Student Engagement" category for its Coming-Home campaign during the spring semester and in the "Branded Static Collateral" category for its Domino's Delivery Poster.

GOLD

Community Engagement | Feeding the World
Clarksville Feeds the World brought the Clarksville community to Austin Peay State University's campus to pack over 500,000 meals to help those locally and around the world. In just one morning, over 3,300 volunteers and 300-plus APSU student-athletes and athletics staff members packed 500,288 meals and 8,000 pounds of food in the Dunn Center. As a thank you for their service, volunteers were given 200 tickets, while supplies lasted, to an Austin Peay women's basketball game later that day.

Affinity Group Marketing | "I AM" 
At the beginning of Black History Month, Austin Peay began a social campaign to connect our Black History game to our campus and student-athletes. APSU partnered with Black Clarksville to join us for the game and recognized women in the community who are paving the way for other women. APSU also launched the "I AM" campaign, where each player and coach chose someone from Black History, pop culture, or their own lives to represent for the game. The marketing team then created shirts for the student-athletes to wear throughout warm-ups and on the sidelines during the game. Each shirt was customized to each player, showcasing their journey and relationship with Black History. 

SILVER

Sport Specific Brand Campaign | #BANG 
To capitalize off Austin Peay's baseball team's success, the term BANG was used as a hashtag and tagline for just about all things baseball. It was designed to create a memorable brand identity, tying head baseball coach Roland Fanning's personality to the power of Austin Peay baseball. Fans across social media now use BANG to showcase their excitement for the program. This awareness spread to sponsorship success as local companies began putting it on their graphics for in-game material and use on our social media accounts. Social media posts using #BANG saw a significant uptick in likes, shares, and comments.  

Sponsorship Campaign | Govs Always Recycle 
APSU partnered with Continental Expedited Services, Stinky Pinky, Habitat for Humanity, and APSU Community Engagement & Sustainability to create zero waste at football games at Fortera Stadium and raise money to build homes for those in need in the Clarksville Community. Over seven home football games, Austin Peay collected 1,124 pounds of cans. Continental Expedited Services also saw increased exposure through social media posts, in-game reads, and concourse signage.

BRONZE

Student Engagement | Coming-Home 
A play on the tradition of Homecoming, we created a "Coming-Home" campaign for the spring semester as students returned to Austin Peay's campus. We focused our efforts on a basketball game, in which t-shirts and in-game visuals leaned into coming home. Pieces of the campaign were handed off to campus partners – including student leaders, Greek Life, and APSU's Student Government – and their voices and involvement created excitement around the game. The student section was turned into a party with free giveaways, beer for those 21 and older, and free pizza. This campaign drew in 489 students – up 342 students on average – and increased average student attendance from 147 per game to 314 per game following this campaign.  

Branded Static Collateral | Domino's Delivery Poster 
We partnered with Domino's of Clarksville to tape a call-to-action flyer on all pizza boxes delivered to their customers during the weekend before our Monday men's basketball home finale. In 48 hours, over 1,000 households and 2,690 fans were reached. This campaign saw an increased fan attendance of 70 percent from our season average, with over 3,000 tickets for the game.