New University campaign launches "remarkable" branding platform

The University of Iowa is developing a new communications campaign around the message Be Remarkable. fyi spoke with Scott Ketelsen, associate director of University Relations, about the campaign.

What’s the best way to describe this initiative?

In marketing terms, the Be Remarkable campaign is a branding platform for The University of Iowa. We want to emphasize our long history of remarkable achievements and the accomplishments and opportunities that the University represents today. We want to let people know that this is a remarkable institution that benefits Iowa, the nation, and the world.

Although we use terms like marketing and branding to describe this campaign, we fully understand that we’re not selling a product like cereal or running shoes. We’re trying to capture the vitality and value of major research university, and we’re developing variations on a core message to reach all sorts of audiences—prospective students or faculty members, donors and granting agencies, voters and policymakers, and so on.

So this is an advertising effort?

Advertising—in print, on TV or radio, and in other venues—will be part of the campaign, but exactly where you see the Be Remarkable message depends on how individual colleges, departments, and programs choose to use it. Our goal was to identify a theme that was broad enough to represent the University as a whole, but also could be customized to meet the marketing and communications needs of individual units.

Tell us about the history of this project.

In summer 2005, a committee from Admissions and University Relations asked the Henry Russell Bruce advertising agency in Cedar Rapids to develop a branding platform for the University. Henry Russell Bruce created the Be Remarkable tagline, visual concepts, advertising proposals, and other tools for use in this campaign.

Early this year, we presented the campaign to University administration, including the vice presidents and deans. We also solicited input from communications, external relations, fund-raising, and marketing professionals throughout the University. It’s been very well received, and we’re now developing our first uses for the campaign while presenting it to the University community as a whole.

Why Be Remarkable? Does this tagline really say anything about The University of Iowa?

If you consider the breadth and strength of the University’s accomplishments, it certainly does. We have no shortage of remarkable stories to tell, but out of Midwestern humility or some other impulse, we’re sometimes reluctant to talk about our achievements. This campaign gives us an opportunity to share those stories.

We settled specifically on Be Remarkable because it implies more than just touting our strengths. It also describes an aspiration that each of us can take to heart, the fact that being part of The University of Iowa—whether as a student, a faculty or staff member, an alumnus, etc.—gives every one of us a role in a history and mission larger than ourselves. We grow personally from our experience, but we also strengthen the institution as a whole.

We performed market research to determine how people across Iowa and in locations like Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, and Los Angeles responded to several taglines. Be Remarkable came out the winner.

Have other universities launched campaigns like this?

Several have, but approaches vary from school to school. The University of Maryland has advertised with the tagline Fear the Turtle—their mascot is the terrapin—for several years. The University of Cincinnati used advertising to increase enrollment, while the University of Houston launched a joint campaign that emphasized academics and athletics. Those are just a few examples.

Marketing can be a controversial topic in higher education, because the nature of our “product” is so unique. But many colleges and universities, small and large, look to marketing strategies to attract top students and faculty, boost their national profiles, and strengthen support.

How much money is the University going to spend on this?

The University has paid Henry Russell Bruce about $35,000 to develop the campaign, but the eventual total cost will depend on how individual colleges, departments, or programs want to use it. To date, there is no central budget for the Be Remarkable campaign. It’s very much up individual units.

University Relations typically budgets about $100,000 each year for advertising, and whatever ads we place in the foreseeable future will use the Be Remarkable message. It’s important to note that advertising can be very expensive—one full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune, for example, can cost at least $40,000.

This fact combined with tight budgets throughout the University mean we have to make judicious use of limited resources. The Be Remarkable campaign does just that, since it gives us a framework for advertising and other communications—we don’t have to spend the time or money developing new concepts every time we choose to advertise, and we end up with a consistent message for the University as a whole.

If I want to use Be Remarkable marketing and branding ideas in promotions for my own department or program, whom do I need to contact?

For now, you can contact me at scott-ketelsen@uiowa.edu or (38)4-0018. We’re assembling a committee that will oversee the campaign—not to control how it’s used, but to maintain a consistent message and help individual units find the most effective and efficient means of making it work for them.

We’re also developing a web site that will list guidelines for the campaign and offer examples of how it’s being used throughout the University.

Is Be Remarkable going to become part of the University’s graphic identity system or logo?

The dome logo and familiar University of Iowa wordmark will not change [Editor’s note: For guidelines on using the graphic identity system, see http://www.uiowa.edu/graphics]. In some cases, using the Be Remarkable tagline alongside the wordmark may be a simple and effective way to tie a brochure, letter, web site, and such to the campaign, but there’s no mandate that the tagline appear on every communication.

How long do you expect the campaign to last?

Typically, branding campaigns like ours go on for two to five years, although they sometimes take on lives of their own. To the best of my knowledge, The University of Iowa never has launched a campaign like this. We hope that it becomes a model for similar projects.

This initiative depends on the people who make up The University of Iowa. I believe that this is a remarkable place to study, to teach, and to work, but the stories we want to tell in this campaign come from individual students, faculty, and staff. Part of our work will be encouraging people to share those stories and to help us convey what the University is all about.