Vanderbilt Hires Ad Agency To Promote Athletics

Birmingham News, Martin Swant

http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2012/09/luckie_co_vanderbilt_universit.html

Birmingham, Alabama — Vanderbilt University is anchoring down on advertising this season with a new and ambitious campaign from Birmingham’s Luckie & Co.

The campaign, the first time the SEC school has hired an ad agency for its sports marketing, is meant to harness the excitement behind its coach of one year — James Franklin.

The theme of the campaign is “This is a Game Changer.” The school — known for scoring more on grades than the gridiron — hopes to establish the image of excelling in both without compromising the idea of a student-athlete. Although the campaign — which features a mix of TV, print, digital and social media efforts — focuses on sports, the goal is for the institution as a whole to be branded, according to Luckie managing director Brad White.

“Ideally what you want to do in any sport is have a great base of fans that are consistently going there because they are fans of the program and then any variation of that gets to be gravy,” said Jay Waters, chief strategy officer at Luckie.

The agency did research to learn what sports fans value that nonsports fans don’t. Waters said attendees had an above average value of tradition, tenacity and optimism. The creative team also read hundreds of comments about Vanderbilt to learn what characterized the university.

“I think there is a lot of excitement at Vanderbilt about what they’ve got going there, but I think it has always been known as a place where the whole idea of being a student-athlete is important,” he said. “The new excitement is about someone the whole university has embraced.”

That someone of course is Franklin, who became head football coach last season. Last year was the first year the team played in a bowl game in quite some time. He and running back Zac Stacy are the focus of the television spots. The campaign isn’t just new territory for Vanderbilt, but also for Luckie. Although it’s worked on campaigns for universities such as Alabama, Auburn and the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, it’s the first time creating one for a school’s athletic program.

Beth Fortune, vice chancellor for public affairs at Vanderbilt, said the school was impressed with Luckie’s work from the time it watched pitches in March. She said the university’s increased athletic success made it the right time to highlight the programs in a “more aggressive and visible way.”

“They represented a very compelling and inspiring campaign that mixes edginess and classiness,” she said. “We believe that is uniquely Vanderbilt. I don’t think you will see television commercials like this one.”

Fortune said the phrase “game changers” speaks of moments not just on the field but also of those in the classrooms and research labs. Although she wouldn’t give specifics on how the school plans to measure the effectiveness of the campaign, Fortune said some goals include increased ticket sales and heightened awareness. The cost of the campaign and terms of the contract also weren’t disclosed.

As features of the campaign, the school’s Facebook page had a hidden image in the banner photo of the team that the agency would slowly reveal as Vanderbilt got more “likes.” Luckie created a rich media ad allowing the viewer to see and share “game changing moments” after each game, Brad White said. The agency also created a social media countdown to game day and is making a digital flip book with highlights from a game.

Darin White, a sports marketing professor at Samford University’s Brock School of Business, said universities use their athletic reputation for much more than bowl games and ticket sales, along with donations from in and out of state.

“For many universities, athletics are the front porch that introduces people to the university,” White said. “Fans get their initial perception of the school from it. It’s a valuable marketing tool for them when leveraged correctly.”