Get to know the UMCF Marketing & Promotions Committee

Editor's Note: Our Marketing & Promotions Committee keeps you informed of the Communicators Forum's goings-on through promotions, tabling events, social media, and more. Get to know the M&P Committee with today's brief member profiles. We asked them the following questions:

1.) What is your job title and department here at the U? How long have you worked there?
2.) Favorite part of your workday?
3.) Why are you part of the Forum?
4.) Where do you find creative inspiration?

Here's what they had to say:

Erin Kober, Marketing & Promotions Committee Co-Chair

1.)
Marketing Manager at Student Unions & Activities. I have worked at Student Unions & Activities for just over a year.
 
2.) Brainstorming! I love finding new and creative ways to get our message to students.

3.) To network across the University and get new ideas from people across all University departments.

4.) A variety of blogs, and of course, Pinterest!


Katie Covey, Marketing & Promotions Committee Co-Chair

1.)
Program and Project Specialist at the Weisman Art Museum. I started
working at WAM as a sophomore in college but have been a full time staff
member for two years.
 
2.) Planning programming with our student group, WAM Collective. They keep me connected to student life!
 
3.) To make connections and learn from my colleagues across campus.
 
4.) The Weisman's galleries, tumblr, nature, and everyone's guilty pleasure - Pinterest!

Amanda Aranowski, Marketing & Promotions Committee Member


1.) Communications Coordinator at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. I began working at the U a little over a year ago.

2.) Editing! I am a total nerd, and when I get to sit with my stack and a red pen, well, nothing makes me happier.

3.) To learn about the best and greatest in communications and to get to know other fabulous communicators on campus.

4.) Other campaigns, advertising, blogs, and, of course, from all of YOU.
 

Monique Dubos, Marketing & Promotions Committee Member

1.) Business Operations Supervisor, Housing & Residential Life for 7 years

2.) Favorite part of my workday is working on projects for committees such as this one. One of the committees I serve on is our HRL sustainability committee. Last year I developed, edited and contributed to a newsletter highlighting our accomplishments from the year.

3.) I'm part of the forum because, through this and other committees, I've discovered a knack for project leadership and development that allows me to use my writing, editing, photography, and social media skills. I joined UMCF to meet communications professionals on campus, learn from them, and add to my experience that will hopefully lead to a communications job one day (soon, I hope!).

4.) I find inspiration in the people I work with - at work and on outside projects. I'm also inspired by the beauty of everyday life - I'm rarely without my camera!


Katie Evans, Marketing & Promotions Committee Member

1.) Lead Events Coordinator, Institute for Global Studies. I have been in my current position for six months. Prior to that, I worked for two and a half years as Program Specialist at the Center for German & European Studies.

2.) Attending the events that I have been preparing for and making sure everything is running smoothly.

3.) I hope the forum will help me become more aware of university wide resources that are available as well as connect to other motivated and talented people in communication positions. Also, my position involves a fair amount of communication and marketing and I hope to be inspired by the forum.

4.) I love collaborating and communicating with my colleagues. People have such diverse experiences and I find that by talking with them, I often get new and fresh ideas through conversation. Also, working so often with events, I find that attending them and seeing different styles also stimulates new ideas that I can apply to my current position.



Kristin Trautman, Marketing & Promotions Committee Member

1.) Events and Communications Coordinator at the Technological Leadership Institute in the College of Science and Engineering. I began working at the University a little over a year ago.

2.) Designing something! Whether it's marketing materials, a website or a PowerPoint presentation I enjoy coming up with an interesting way to layout and display information.

3.) To take in (and hopefully add to!) the best of the communications community here on campus. I joined the forum earlier this year and have already been inspired and learned a great deal.

4.) I am constantly perusing marketing and technology websites and blogs for ideas. I also like to attend events here on campus and around town.

Editor's Note: How would YOU answer these questions? Where do you find inspiration? What prompted you to join the Forum?

The drive behind the Driven to Discover student campaign

Guest blogger: Drew Swain, U Relations marketing coordinator, manages the University's overall brand and assists in the development of the yearly Driven to Discover campaigns. Swain says the focus of this phase of the campaign is on students, and gives some insight at how that came about, and what's coming next.

Here's Drew:

You've seen professors explain mind control. Professors growing hearts. Professors teaching classes from the Arctic. Professors even lecturing on what makes Superman faster than bullets. So what about the students? Where do they fit into the University's mission to discover?

That's the focus of the new iteration Driven to Discover, the Driven to Discover Student Campaign, which was just released. You might have already seen some of the TV spots.

The inception of the campaign was really a confluence of factors. We wanted to take an uncharted path to further the Driven to Discover brand and one of President Kaler's incoming initiatives centered on students. Meanwhile, the U of M Foundation was starting its new scholarship drive. It was a natural fit to make students the campaign's "heroes."

As higher education communications pros, when you look at Discover Student, you should notice its unique approach. While student related campaigns of other schools are direct recruiting tools, we're telling our audiences how the student experience at the U is unbeatable. There's nowhere else in the state and most of the region where students can be paired up with elite faculty like Andy Van de Ven, one of the world's top minds in managing innovation. Nowhere they have such an array of opportunities to discover their passion and profession through partnerships like the Guthrie BFA Program. And nowhere they can be exposed to such distinct student-related experiences (hello, Sheep, Goat, and Lama Club).

The next step in the student campaign will make it even more focused on students, when it asks them to directly participate in a scholarship video contest. Students will be asked to submit 30-second videos of themselves explaining what they have discovered at the U. Winners will be chosen based on "Likes" on the U's Facebook page, so stay tuned in mid-December when voting begins!

Communicating with your faculty about the value of research and expertise publicity

Jeff Falk (the handsome fellow to the left, in full professional regalia), assistant director of the U's News Service, has some helpful advice today on getting University research and researchers in the news. First step: making sure faculty see the value of media relations. That's where you (we all) come in. Here's Falk's post:

"If your research is stale, if your classroom is boring, if your community engagement is ineffective, you must reinvent yourself, or, frankly, you must step aside," President Kaler implored faculty in his Sept. 22 inauguration ceremony address. "As you expect me to deliver on my job, I expect you to deliver on yours."

Here at the University News Service, we believe there are few better and simpler ways to highlight the value of faculty research and expertise than through focused and strategic media relations. Here are some suggested talking points to emphasize with faculty when discussing the importance of media relations:

--News stories on University of Minnesota research and expertise are read by state legislators, the governor, and Minnesota's Congressional delegation as well as citizens, donors and, when there is national publicity, people at federal funding agencies.

--Research results can help inform decisions on important public issues.

--Many grant applications require public outreach and education, and there certainly is a need to improve public appreciation of science and how research benefits society.

--Popular press coverage makes it more likely research will be seen and cited by other scientists

--Announcements about grants, appointments, and awards rarely get more coverage than brief mentions in local newspapers. This is why it is important to focus on publicizing research findings and faculty expertise.

--Finally, popular press coverage of research often results in valuable contacts with potential collaborators. Most national and international publicity about the U comes from coverage of peer-reviewed research findings.

As faculty have been charged to push the envelope, we as communicators need to take advantage of this opportunity and help them understand the value and impact of telling their stories.

--Jeff Falk ( jfalk at umn.edu )

U's "Driven to Discover" campaign cited in WSJ

Congratulations to the U's marketing department! The latest round of Driven to Discover was highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article on college advertising campaigns, where Minnesota was called "the national champion of self-promotion."

What did WSJ find so impressive?

"The ad that graded the highest overall was Minnesota's. The ad features
Massoud Amin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, who
talks about the importance of creating a better power grid. Our
panelists liked the ad because it was about academics. They also thought
it conveyed messages about research and diversity without beating the
viewer over the head with them."

University Branding/Marketing Campaigns Face Criticism Everywhere

Inside HigherEd has an interesting article about recent marketing campaigns by American University, Purdue, Drake and others. 

Brand New Dilemma looks at the pitfalls and motivations behind branding campaigns--how they are perceived by students and alumni, the general public, and marketing pundits. One audience I would have liked to hear from are faculty.

Here at Minnesota we've just launched the new "Because" campaign, which is Driven to Discover v.3 or 4. Like the campaigns discussed in the Inside HigherEd piece, some people love it, some hate it. In light of these responses to marketing campaigns around the country, what do you think of "Because"?

Swimming in Lake Superior with the Communicators Forum

Not long ago I was reading a story in the New York Times about some hardy folks up north that do not shy away, evidently, from icicles in their beards. This summer, it seems, according the the U's Minnesota Sea Grant project, Lake Superior is on track for possibly its warmest waters on record. So grab your swimming suit and take advantage, and while you're there, recruit other Forum members who will be attending the Sept. 17 Forum event, "Effective Outreach to Target Audiences." It's an opportunity to learn all about internet marketing success, ice beards not included. More details below:

Effective Outreach to Target Audiences
Friday, September 17, 2010

3 p.m. Program, Weber Music Hall:

Marty Weintraub, founder of aimClear, and Manny Rivas, aimClear SEO account manager, will explain the tools that build internet marketing success: pay per click, search engine optimization, online marketing, using social media, technical audits, reputation monitoring, and driving traffic. What works, what doesn't and why? Marty Weintraub is in demand as a speaker on this subject and we are grateful to UMCF member Cheryl Reitan of UMD for arranging this program.  aimClear is an Internet-focused advertising agency with a national client base and is located in Duluth, Minnesota. It offers clients a full service array of state-of the-art services and best-in-class demographic research capabilities. Their practice centers around online marketing and their client list includes well known US publishers and household brands.

This program is co-sponsored by the UMCF, UMD Labovitz School of Business and Economics, UMD Communicators Counci,l and The American Advertising Federation.

4 p.m. Refreshments and networking with the Ad Fed, UMD communicators, and Labovitz School students

6 p.m. Drinks at Zeitgeist Arts Café

7 p.m. Dinner at Zeitgeist Arts Café

The Suites Hotel at Waterfront Plaza (Canal Park) is holding rooms at $85 (studio king suite, sleeps 2-4), $90 (studio double suite, sleeps 2-4), and $100 (one bedroom king suite, sleeps 2-6) for Friday, September 17. Reserve by phone and mention the UMD Communicators Forum. 325 Lake Ave South, Duluth 55802, 218-727-4663, www.thesuitesduluth.com. Booking deadline is August 17.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

9:45 a.m. Free tour of Glensheen Historic Mansion for UMCF members courtesy of UMD

Register online for the program. Book your accommodation directly with the hotel. We will contact registered members for dinner and Glensheen tour bookings. Carpooling is encouraged.

Are you getting through to your audience?

Is my publication worth the
money we spend on it? Measuring the effectiveness of communications products is both an art and
a science. Our September program, the first of the 09-10 year, was about tools and resources that can be used
in this search for information, and the experience of one communicator who recently went through this process.


Rhonda Zurn of the Institute of Technology wanted to find out whether
her college's print magazine was doing its job of reaching out to alumni. She was
prepared for the answer to be no, but a thorough, well conducted survey
determined that it was.

Andy Merrill of the U's Office of Measurement Services
talked about his office's ability to conduct research into the effectiveness of
websites, print pieces and other communications efforts at a discount to
outside firms. OMS has a unique perspective on University-wide communications
efforts and how each project fits in. In case you missed the program, you
may view the recording below.






In October, don't miss our program on Web 2.0: When is it
worth doing? Watch for details, coming on this blog soon.

Monday link roundup, 9.21.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Productivity
Now that students and faculty are back in action, do you feel overwhelmed and overburdened? Don't let the demands of your work day get the better of you. Use your time at work more efficiently.

Marketing/Branding
Does branding pay off for Colleges? Harvard thinks so.

PR
Do you think Kayne's outburst at the VMAs was a publicity stunt? This expert does.

Social media

Brands are strengthened (or damaged) based on the experiences they provide. And in an increasingly social world, those experiences are no longer created for people but with them. On this blog you will find articles and insights about the opportunities and challenges created by rapidly growing and evolving Social Media.

Twin Cities Twitter (Shout out to Jessica Franken, our rockin' Blog editor) for sending this my way.)

Graphic Design
Looking for Photoshop and Illustrator Tips/Tricks? Check out Pixel Perfect on Revision 3. You can download episodes via ITunes or watch right on the Revision 3 Web site. Side note: Revision 3 is an amazing resource for all things technology. Check out Tekzilla if you are a geek like me!

Fun stuff
Myna is
sort of like Garage Band in your web browser.