UI to launch massive marketing campaign next week

Herky the Hawkeye, his Tiger Hawk logo, and many other couriers of the University of Iowa brand will be appearing in the coming months at ballparks, racetracks, malls, and fairs near you.

Increasing its brand presence statewide is part of the planned massive marketing campaign the university plans to launch next week aimed at recruiting and enrolling more resident students. The Board of Regents last month incentivized UI officials to increase its in-state student body by agreeing to change the way it allocates state dollars.

Beginning in 2016, over a three-year period, the board will move from a 'base-plus” funding model that made UI the top funded regent university in the state to one that ties 60 percent of funds to in-state enrollment. The change would make Iowa State University the top recipient of state dollars - if enrollment levels remain consistent.

But UI officials said they plan to compete harder for those in-state students - and the money that goes with them - by bolstering recruiting and advertising efforts. And UI spokesman Joseph Brennan told the UI Staff Council on Wednesday that his team is launching a statewide marketing campaign Tuesday that will use 'every channel we can” to reach Iowans in every corner of the state.

Brennan declined to share too many details about the campaign, saying he wants to save some of the innovative methods for the launch. But, he said, there will be clever use of social media, involvement in the State Fair and RAGBRAI, and an associated 'hash tag” - targeting today's ever-elusive youth.

'There is no silver bullet for reaching young people,” Brennan said. 'But we will try a variety of things.”

One member of the Staff Council suggested creating an 'app” that feeds users short snippets of information that is relevant to their lives but also spreads the UI message.

'We know we have to be digital,” Brennan said. 'We will be innovative.”

UI admissions officials also are expanding efforts to attract more Iowans by changing recruiting strategies to include younger students. Instead of sending materials only to juniors and seniors, Brennan said, high school students now will start receiving information from the university in their freshman and sophomore years, Brennan said.

'And we will be targeting student interests,” he said.

That means recruiters will get more specific in their outreach efforts. And, Brennan said, UI admissions officials plan to visit every high school in the state as part of the campaign.

According to Board of Regents statistics, the UI freshman resident enrollment in fall 2013 was 48 percent, and its total undergraduate resident enrollment was 55 percent. Iowa State's freshman resident enrollment was 58 percent, and its total undergraduate resident enrollment was 65 percent.

The University of Northern Iowa recorded 91 percent for both its freshman and total undergraduate resident enrollment in the last academic year.