Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Partners With StarGreetz to Become First School to Send Personalized Video Messages to Admitted Students From High-Profile Alums

SYRACUSE, N.Y. and LOS ANGELES, June 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications (http://newhouse.syr.edu/) at Syracuse University has partnered with StarGreetz (www.stargreetz.com), a pioneering digital media company, to welcome its incoming 2011 freshman class with personalized welcome videos from high-profile alumni. It is the first time that students will receive a hyper-personalized video message rather than a standard text email welcoming them to the school.

Approximately 300 new admits are receiving a customized email from the Newhouse School with a personal video message from alumni Contessa Brewer '96, MSNBC anchor, and Dennis Crowley '98, co-founder of foursquare, congratulating them on their acceptance to Newhouse and welcoming them to the Syracuse University community. The alumni address students individually, saying each student's name.

"The Newhouse School has an incredible network of successful, high-profile alumni, and they're almost always willing to help students and fellow alumni. That's the reason many students choose to enroll here," said Newhouse Dean Lorraine Branham. "Bringing Dennis and Contessa together with our incoming students—and doing it through the embrace of advanced digital technology, which is what we're all about at Newhouse—has us very excited. We're also thrilled to be working with the head of StarGreetz, Eric Frankel—another one of our successful, high-profile Newhouse alums."

StarGreetz' proprietary technology allows the voices and video images of celebrities and brand personalities to be transformed into personalized, rich-media messages sent directly to consumers via Facebook, Twitter, web pages, banner ads, QR codes, email, mobile and digital devices, even personalized audio on land lines. StarGreetz' content incorporates the user name and most of its products are user-customized with a selection of variables such as location, hobbies, gender and relationship, among others, creating millions of unique personalized video messages.

"As a Newhouse alumnus, I am thrilled to partner with one of the top schools in the country, allowing it to talk to its students personally on a deeper level with highly-relevant, impactful messages," said Eric Frankel, Founder and CEO of StarGreetz. "Years ago, I chose to attend Newhouse because of its leadership and expertise in the communications field. By being the first school to embrace our technology, Newhouse is demonstrating that it knows how to stay in front of and create trends."

About StarGreetz

StarGreetz is a pioneering content provider of customized, user-personalized, star-powered rich media messages to both online and mobile platforms worldwide. The company's game-changing audio and video technology delivers personalized messaging using the voices and images of popular celebrities and iconic characters. StarGreetz offers next-generation products and services that appeal to both advertisers and consumers including celebrity greetings, eCards, eInvitations, ringtones, voicemail, best-in-class CRM, viral video messaging, media activation, QR codes and the world's first-ever personalized talking/video Facebook, website and banner ad apps and more.

About the Newhouse School

Widely regarded as one of the nation's top schools of communication, the Newhouse School is engaged in industry partnerships and ongoing curricular development that prepare students and faculty alike to take a leadership role in addressing the issues of today's rapidly changing media landscape. The Newhouse School embraces virtually every known form of information dissemination—from print, broadcast and online journalism to advertising and public relations to photography and film. Faculty members come primarily from the profession and consider teaching a top priority. Students are among the best in the country, having secured a place in the class through a highly competitive admissions process. Upon graduation they become part of a large, loyal and highly accomplished group of alumni—individuals who are literally shaping the future of public communication across the globe.

SOURCE StarGreetz