2008 Woodie Awards
IUPUI impact campaign creating a buzz around Indianapolis
David Grobuskas
Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: College News
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Last summer IUPUI started a new advertising campaign to share IUPUI's defining characteristic. Guess what it is.
"IUPUI sits at the heart of downtown Indianapolis where decisions are made about the entire state of Indiana," said Troy D. Brown, executive director of Communications and Marketing, in an e-mail interview. "There is an energy here unmatched by any other campus in the state."
During research, students and faculty kept pointing to IUPUI's impact on their lives, careers and ambition, said Amy Conrad Warner, vice chancellor for External Affairs, and Brown's boss. "Impact" cut across IUPUI's diverse campus make-up.
The "Impact" campaign has targeted undergraduates, graduates and the larger college and metro community. IUPUI advertising to undergraduates and graduates happens most often on regional television and radio, in magazines "Next" and "Grad" and posted ads in malls.
Design firm Cabello and Associates was hired for a national print campaign targeted at IUPUI's peer institutions, but it has yet to go forward.
The campaign touts IUPUI's small classes for undergraduates, local access to higher degrees for graduates, an urban energy and volunteer opportunities.
Advertising was placed in the "Chronicle of Higher Education" and local public radio station WFYI shows Sound Medicine and Check-Up align "Impact" with campus image.
"There really were no other options," Brown said about alternatives to "Impact."
The campaign took 80 percent of the overall marketing budget. It used $300,000 for television ads, $50,000 for radio, $70,000 for local and regional print and staff time covered IUPUI's Web site.
The campaign has garnered attention from industry magazine Admissions Marketing Report, winning the publication's "Best of Show" in 2008 for "Total Advertising Campaign." IUPUI received the gold awards for "Total Advertising Campaign" and "Internet/Worldwide Web Site" and two other awards for a school with 20,000 or more students.
Brown said he thinks the campaign has succeeded.
"There is a buzz among faculty and students."
"I haven't heard anything about the IUPUI 'Impact' campaign," said Ian Johnson, a junior majoring in finance. He was in the majority of six out of eight students studying on the second floor of the Education and Business buildings Wednesday morning who were unfamiliar with the "Impact" campaign.
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