Branding Over Dinner
If you haven’t heard about the University of Maryland’s or the University of Cincinnati’s branding campaigns of the last six to eight years, you need to set aside a few minutes right now to go and read about them. I just got home last night from an Academic Impressions conference on branding that was held in Charlotte. I was teamed up with four other fantastic presenters; two from Lipman Hearne who really know their stuff (Jim Bernard and Joselyn Zivin), Terry Flannery from University of Maryland, and Mary Stagaman from University of Cincinnati.
Terry shared Maryland’s positioning statement and talked about the process they went through to develop it, generate buy-in throughout her campus, and launch it internally and externally. Then she described Maryland’s wildly successful “ZOOM” campaign, the first designed to bring the brand strategy to life. Finally, she transitioned over to the current “Fear the Turtle” campaign which builds on the original brand positioning through an updated and revised creative strategy. It’s an absolutely fascinating story with great measurable ROI.
Mary’s story at University of Cincinnati is equally incredible. She was put in charge of marketing eight years ago; the first campus employee to have the word “marketing” in her title. Her budget back then was $0! She is now responsible for managing a vast marketing team and budget and is a great case study for best practices in marketing and branding. You can learn about her branding initiative here.
If you ever get the chance to attend a conference where these fantastic women are telling their story, you must attend. Mary is a food & wine connoisseur so if you call her up and offer to take her to dinner, she might even give you a private lesson. She can school you in branding AND help you find a great red zin to pair with your pork!