This is the time of year when high school seniors begin sitting down to tackle their ominous pile of unfinished college applications.
Armed with this knowledge, Miami University has launched an advertisement campaign spanning November and December encouraging students and their parents to set their sights on Oxford, Ohio.
The campaign includes radio, print and Internet advertisements as well as billboards touting the school's recent No. 2 ranking in best undergraduate teaching by U.S. News and World Report, according to Tracy Hughes, director of university marketing.
Hughes said advertisements have been running in three of Ohio's key markets, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus, as well as Toledo, Indianapolis and Chicago.
"Our competition has been advertising in our backyard for the past 10 years," Hughes said.
The billboards and advertisements cost an estimated $300,000 and this campaign is only the beginning, Hughes said.
The radio, TV and print spots are part of the Bridge Campaign, a stepping stone toward a larger $1.5 million brand marketing campaign that will begin next year.
According to Dionn Tron, associate vice president for university communications, Miami hired 160over90, a Philadephia-based branding agency to help craft the messages.
160over90 will help Miami create a brand campaign that unifies all of the school's departments, like athletics and undergraduate admissions, Tron said.
The larger campaign will play upon Miami's undergraduate ranking as well as PayScale.com for Miami's ranking in salary potential after graduation, Tron said.
Tron said touting Miami's attributes is not intended to increase enrollment at Miami University, but to increase the number of applicants, which will in turn increase the school's selectivity.
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"Competition to continue to attract the top students in the state is getting tougher," Tron said. "When you get ranked alongside Dartmouth and Princeton, you need to milk it."
The first stage of next year's branding campaign has three key areas of focus, according to Tron. The first is undergraduate admissions, which focuses on getting students to apply to Miami. Second, the campaign hopes to target the school's peers in higher education, the institutions that make the rankings in U.S. News and World Report.
The third goal is to engage young alumni, those who graduated within the last 10 years, to garner their support. Over time this campaign will expand even further, Tron said.
She said the budget for the branding campaign was granted from program improvement funds because the advertising was deemed a university priority.
The goal for the university was trying to find unique ways to spend the money as wisely as possible to increase applications, program quality and better Miami's reputation, Tron said.
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