Spreading the word

Bob Beagle Vice President for University Advancement

Spreading the word

As you read this, you are among nearly 30,000 individuals, businesses, and organizations that receive the University Pacer eight times a year. This publication, along with our sponsorship ads on WRNI radio and our display at T.F. Green airport, among others, are part of the University’s ongoing marketing efforts planned and developed in the Division of University Advancement. Connecting with a variety of audiences on behalf of the University is a large part of the Division’s mission. We are assisted by an excellent and resourceful Communications Advisory Council—an external volunteer group of alumni and friends whose professional careers are in communications.

Marketing has become a priority for colleges and universities in the 21st century.

Our overall goal is to reinforce the fact that URI is a high quality comprehensive research institution, with an accomplished faculty, successful alumni, and an ever-growing student body of high academic achievers. In addition to playing a critical role in educating students, URI makes significant contributions to economic development and provides research expertise and outreach services that improve people’s lives. We market those attributes that give the University a distinctive position in the marketplace.

Our marketing mix contains strategies that are probably obvious to you, such as our direct mail pieces, media coverage, and in-house publications like the University Pacer, which reaches a diverse audience, and QuadAngles, distributed to all URI alumni.

Our overall communications efforts have increased awareness of URI’s strengths and contributed significantly to the perception of URI as a quality institution, manifested in record-breaking applications to URI, increased private giving, and greater recognition from decision-makers in both the public and private sectors.

Linda A. Acciardo, director of communications, has observed that over the past five to six years, an important objective has been to increase the visibility of the Honors Program, its students, and its Colloquium lecture series. “A highly regarded internal academic offering, which existed in obscurity, is now a widely known public lecture series.” Speakers at this fall’s Honors Colloquium on globalization have addressed standing-room-only audiences. We believe the WRNI advertising, print and broadcast media coverage, articles in URI’s publications, direct mail pieces, and sponsorship of the series by the Providence Journal together play a major role in that success.

Our aggressive media relations and media placement work has resulted in more than 1,200 articles published in local, regional, and national media outlets, and about 445 broadcast spots aired on local and national TV and radio.

You may be familiar with our advertising that focuses on alumni achievement. Feedback we’ve received from the current television spot suggests that it serves to instill alumni pride.

But there are other marketing components that perhaps do not come so readily to mind. For example, Todd McLeish, of our communications staff, manages the URI Speakers Bureau comprised of about 170 faculty and staff. This past year Todd scheduled presentations for nearly 200 community groups. This effort is an excellent direct marketing tool that also showcases the caliber of URI faculty and staff.

Last, but certainly not least, University Advancement has embarked on a comprehensive and aggressive initiative to expand our electronic communications outreach, especially among alumni. Realizing that more than half of our alumni live outside Rhode Island, our email system is designed to reach them with current University news that they might not otherwise get.

We also know that it is difficult for most alumni to attend events and take time from hectic career and family responsibilities. Thus, we are designing an electronic communications product that will make available URI faculty, staff, and nationally known alumni for electronic chats.

Our overall marketing philosophy is pretty fundamental—communicate frequently and regularly, provide relevant and timely information, make sure messages and information are consistent and integrated, and repeat the key messages often. We believe our fundamental approach is the best way to establish the right kinds of perceptions and frames of reference about the University. We believe this approach is the best way to help our many alumni and friends connect with URI on an emotional and supportive level.