NMU’s marketing and promotion’s manager has been selected as a top three finalist for the 2007-08 NACMA Best of Award.

Jess Jones was both surprised and excited at being chosen as a finalist for the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) Best of Award.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be a finalist” she said. “And we’re incredibly happy to be receiving the honor as a department.”

The department is also receiving an NCAA Division II Community Engagement award at the convention, Jones said.

“We are so excited as a department to receive these awards and it’s really great for the businesses who were involved.”

Jones became a finalist for her work on the promotion of “Diamond Date Night” and the “Mascot Duel.”

To come up with the idea for the “Mascot Duel,” Jones spoke with people at Big Boy who had recently purchased their own Big Boy costume.

“We wanted to make sure [the event] was enjoyable for all the families and students,” she said.

Due to the recent popularity of dancing shows on television, Jones thought it might be a good idea to do a dance off between Wildcat Willy and the Big Boy mascot, Jones said.

“Good publicity was the goal of the event, but we knew it was going to be very unique and very hilarious,” she said.

The idea for “Diamond Date Night,” was formulated with Wattsson and Wattsson in order for them to promote their business and reach more people.

“We came up with that idea because we wanted to do something unheard of,” Jones said.

Wattsson and Wattsson gave students a chance to win valuable diamond jewelry.

“We felt like it was something we hadn’t seen before and it’d be a really fun event for all the Wildcat fans and we tied it in with Valentines Day,” she added.