College of Medicine – Phoenix Media Production Team Honored with Bronze Telly Award

The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Media Production team has received a national Bronze Telly Award for its video celebrating Match Day 2020.

The Telly Awards recognize excellence in video and television, and the College of Medicine – Phoenix was recognized in the category for General Live Experience for Branded Content from a submission pool of more than 13,000 entries.

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The annual Match Day event in March is when graduating medical students learn where they will spend the next three to seven years in residency as they take the next step in their journey to practice medicine.

In Phoenix, students traditionally celebrate Match Day with friends and family who participate in a countdown before graduates open their Match Day envelopes.

In response to the pandemic, college officials canceled the in-person celebration this year, but they wanted to do something out of the ordinary for the Class of 2020. Students picked up their sealed envelopes and returned home to tune in to a virtual celebration hosted on Zoom. Graduates took turns, surrounded by parents, spouses, children and pets, sharing where they matched.

Since the college’s inaugural Class of 2011, Media Productions Manager Adolpho Navarro has compiled a Match Day “recap” video each year.

“Every year I try to find a unique story to tell with the help of our Student Affairs planning committee,” Navarro said.

This year’s virtual event included prerecorded messages from the deans, as well as an in-house student music video for the Class of 2020. First- and second-year students recorded a special rendition of “Be Our Guest,” with lyrics rewritten by Student Affairs — a song-and-dance number that was originally slated to be performed live, but was adapted for the virtual event. The media team found three students to perform the choreographed dance for a prerecorded video right as the Phoenix campus was shutting down. The video was played live to the students via Zoom, and all 80 graduates were able to share their match results with one another in a manner Navarro compared to a live news broadcast.

To create the winning video, the media team collaborated with multiple units, including marketing and communications, special events, student affairs, instructional support and medical students. Navarro compiled an event recap video highlighting the virtual production as well as videos recorded by students as they opened their match results at home. In the months following Match Day, the video has gained 46,000 views on YouTube.

“What separated this year’s event from the rest was the challenge that COVID-19 presented, and the uncharted territory the campus faced trying to create something truly special for the Class of 2020,” Navarro said. “A lot of unique moving parts enabled me to create the video. Multiple units came together and successfully created a very special virtual experience during challenging times, which we hope the graduates will always remember.”