When It Rains, It Pours…A PR Nightmare at UNM

Ever have “one of those days?” Well, UNM Athletics is having “one of those semesters.”

UNM Athletics has been hammered by issue after issue making the national and international news – none of them in a good way. Bear with me as I recap the incidents briefly.

The first dealt with Lobo head football coach, Mike Locksley, who was hired in December 2008 and since then has created controversy left and right.  According to a California news website a former administrative assistant “accused Locksley of sexual harassment, age discrimination and retaliation. The plaintiff’s lawyer said Locksley told the woman she was too old to be attractive to recruits.” According to the NCAA Football Fanhouse (click here), the issue was resolved out of court and “All EEOC claims have been withdrawn.”

Then there was a terribly misguided September ad campaign tying Lobo Athletics to a local casino promotion: Lobo Loco ads blog (click here).

Next came an incident that recently played itself out over national ESPN interviews, where Locksley was accused of hitting an assistant coach. See this Associated Press article.   This was followed up by the thorough bungling of the investigation of the fight incident by the UNM Athletics department, as painfully described in this ill-advised and poorly executed press conference by UNM President David Schmidly and VP of Athletics Paul Krebs

As of Tuesday night, I understand the issue is now under further investigation by the UNM staff committee. All of this on top of UNM’s on-field troubles of a 0-9 losing football season.

And now comes the BYU vs UNM soccer incident that has again made the international news. I will let the video clip below from ESPN’s Sports Center speak for itself.

The player has been suspended indefinitely, issued a written apology, and has gone into hiding due to wide release of and strong negative reaction to the incident.  There have been many articles regarding the situation. Here are a couple of them:

• A letter to the editor of the DailyLobo (UNM student newspaper) by a BYU student
• UK’s Sky News call player “dirtiest” soccer player ever
• Brisbane Times calls incident an internet hit

UNM had no way of preventing or controlling this series of events, of course. Every school has or will have unforeseeable issues that plague them like this, although this non-stop series of one after the other has got to set some sort of record.

Yet several of UNM’s recent wounds were self-infllicted.  The Lobo Loco ad campaign, for example, was misguided from the start, and should never have seen the light of day.  And the press conference in which the UNM President and VP of Athletics tediously slogged through a laundry list of what UNM did wrong in the Locksley assault case was badly mishandled.

In fact, there has been scant evidence of any judicious, well-planned issues management from the institution.  Here’s what we all might take away from this unfortunate series of events:

1. Have an “issues management plan” (not just a “crisis plan”) in place that defines policies, procedures, and responsibilities.  Responses should be directed by a small team of the most experienced and trusted communicators on campus, rather than departmental (in this case, Athletics) staff.  Make sure administrators approve the plan in advance.
2. One clear, credible spokesperson should consistently deal with the media throughout.
3. Create talking points and guidelines for those who need to know regarding policy issues and the institutional responses and solutions.
4. Resolve the issue quickly, completely, and decisively the first time, rather than trying to “contain” or “compartmentalize responses. Letting issues trickle on is the worst possible approach.
5. Never allow the CEO to “own” all the problems and errors, only the solutions.
6. Act fast, act honestly, act comprehensively.

Hopefully this will mark the end of issues for UNM Athletics and they’ll be able to move forward with academics and athletics more productively.  We hope so!

Out of State, Much in Mind

As the snow started falling like crazy in Colorado on Wednesday of this week,  I came across an article about the ski industry in Colorado. Due to lingering effects of the economic downturn, the ski industry has shifted its marketing strategy from marketing nationally and internationally to marketing in-state and  regionally. People aren’t driving as much, aren’t planning to go too far from home and aren’t spending that much money on a luxury like skiing.

Similar, but not exactly the same issues are being felt in higher education. Rising tuition, lower income, loss of jobs are being faced by many families. Which is one reason why I was surprised to see many universities last week mention they are going to start, are thinking about, or are being to pressured to increasing their out-of-state admissions.  UC Berkeley, University of Colorado, and the State University of New York are thinking of ways to increase out-of-state and international student numbers.

A couple notes before I begin. While I understand the  state funding issues and other budgetary issues revolving around this  issue, I want to mention some of the  marketing issues these schools may face in the near future as they move forward in their decision, at least in the short term. Also, this is not a bashing on the schools strategic decision, but more of a brain dump on potential issues.

• Costs families have to weigh. Students and their families, for the most part, have less money and may not be able to be accepted for a loan. This means that many students and families will have to debate whether they actually can afford some of the additional costs of an out-of-state education:
  • housing
  • transportation, both for local driving and back-to-home visits
  • transportation,  family visits on campus
  • long-distance communication
  • parking
  • out-of-state tuition
• Scattered audiences. While there are still many families doing “okay” and are able to afford or receive loans for many of the items listed above, being able to market to them en-masse may be difficult.  So money will be needed to boost marketing for a more scattered and widespread audience.
• Angering the local stakeholders. Community members, alumni, donors, and others may feel slided by the nearby university’s decision to target more out-of-staters. Some may disagree with the idea their higher education institution is not educating their local community. Some may even feel so strongly about it, they will no longer donate to or cut ties with the school.
• Reworking marketing materials. Many organizations have a single search mailer or viewbook they send to prospective students and they often tend to focus the style, language, and voice to match their major audience. Depending on where they shift there attention to grab out-of-state students, the schools above may need to rework their marketing materials to effectively reach their new audiences.
• Understanding and communicating with new audiences. To increase out-of-state enrollment, many will have to look to new markets and new audiences to reach their goals. This means that marketing research should be done to find  potential students and understand their motives.  Also an increase in out-of-state or international recruiters may be needed.
• Increased competition. Trying to sway a potential student away from a less-expensive,  in-state  university may be hard sell. Also, many institutions have been increasing their marketing capabilities to reach the increase of potential students (via – more higher ed students during poor economy). They are also trying to protect the markets they themselves consider strongholds.
• Educating new audiences. Many schools have market strongholds where the audiences know them fairly well. The audience knows about the school, have been on the campus a couple times, have considered going there, and have friends or family members that have gone there. When shifting markets, especially out-of-state markets, the marketing will have to start from scratch in many areas and educate the audience about the school.

Many universities have done almost the opposite based on their situations. They are bunkering down and, as mentioned, protecting or solidifying their current markets often with great benefits. They may even be venturing into a few newer markets to look for potential students.  Seems like a risky time to be frustrating current market strongholds and venturing heavily into new markets.

This is a risky move by UC Berkeley, University of Colorado and State University of New York with several potential issues, but only time will tell if  the benefits will outweigh the costs and if this is a strategy they plan on keeping in the long-term. All the luck to them and others facing this type of situation.

Tiny Turtles and Those Darn Sponsors

Within 10 minutes I came across two topics I couldn’t pass on discussing especially since I touched on both of the subjects recently. The first is about Terp pride at the University of Maryland and the second is about another sponsorship debate at the University of Kentucky’s Sex Week.

First, I came across a recent blog post on The Old College Try: Marketing Higher Ed, about one of my favorite subjects, guerrilla marketing, as mentioned in one of my previous blogs. The University of Maryland is currently implementing an internal marketing tactic to boost Terp pride and calm fears that the popular “Fear the Turtle” calling was going to be retired.  The University hid 570 tiny plastic turtles for students to find throughout the campus. Once a student finds a turtle, they can enter a code found on the plastic figure at the companion Fear the Turtle ‘09 website. Based on the code, a “tile” is flipped on the campus map on the Fear the Turtle website and the student has a chance to win a prize. According to an article in University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper, “prizes range from ice cream cones, Starbucks and Applebee’s gift cards to iPods, T-shirts and tote bags.” There is also a “grand daddy” prize that has yet to be revealed. It was mentioned in the article that posters were placed around the campus to explain the tactic. As of writing this, 461 turtles have been found.

This is an excellent example of using guerrilla marketing that brings in many people in a non-traditional manner. It is fun. It coincides with the university brand. It uses a web-centric approach and also has the ability to share news on social networks. It brings the campus community together. Kudos to the University of Maryland team!

Moving on… last week I wrote about an odd sponsorship of a university athletic program and concerns about how that sponsorship was being portrayed. Before going on, I want to mention that the rest of this post talks about sex and may be uncomfortable to some.

This week, we find yet another odd sponsor of an educational event called Sex Week at the University of Kentucky. The Sex Week says that the week long event is to “increase sexual literacy by initiating an informed, open, and sustained dialog about human sexuality throughout the campus community.” As we all know, this is a great topic for a campus community that has been making the news recently as some universities are taking steps to regulate sexual activity in dorms, according to an article in U.S. News and World Report.

However, I heard in the local news, that one of the sponsors of the event is Pure Romance. The company is an “in-home party company which offers an exclusive line of heighteners, lubricants and bedroom accessories for relationship enhancement.” According to the event website, on Monday October 5, “Pure Romance will tackle myths and misconceptions surrounding bedroon accessories. Discover the truth before getting naked.”  While the sponsorship itself is a bit odd, the session itself may sound a bit more like a sales pitch than an learning opportunity. Also, according to news article published in Kentucky, it was suggested that some of the sponsor’s products promote violence against women.

Both the previous blog post about the athletic sponsor and the sponsor in this blog seem to suggest that there may be a concerning growing fad of allowing any sponsors in without worrying about whether or not the sponsor is actually appropriate to the audience, setting, brands, etc. As long as they have the cash, then it is okay to let them sponsor.

Could it really be possible that the NFL has more standards regarding advertising/sponsorships than some higher ed institutions? Below are NFL advertising guidelines found in their media kit,

The NFL will NOT accept advertising promoting the offering of or making reference to any of the following products or services (partial list)

• Distilled Spirits
• Tobacco Products (including cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff)
• Contraceptives
• Feminine Hygiene Products
• Fireworks
• Firearms and Ammunition
• Lotteries
• Gambling (including Horse or Dog Racing and products or services relating in any way to gambling)

High Flying Advertising and Sponsorships

As an undergrad and grad student in Albuquerque I have always loved this time of year because the beginning of October means it is time for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. This annual gathering of hundreds of balloons is often considered the largest gathering of balloons in the world (about 750) and the most photographed event in the world. I have about 140 movie clips and photos of being there a couple times. Also, the pictures in the post are pictures I have taken during my past visits.

I have attended this event many times over the last ten years. But a hot air balloon flying around that had a banner attached to it for The University of Phoenix a, couple of weeks ago, got me thinking. You can see many balloons with advertising or sponsor logos and message in this post’s pictures: Wells Fargo (the wagon balloon and regular shape balloon), AOL, Star Wars (Darth Vader balloon behind the two bees), Creamland Dairy (cow shape behind the two bees), Oust spray can, Energizer, and various other companies. This is not to mention the other advertising/sponsorships on the ground at the event.

The part of The University of Phoenix balloon that got me thinking is – why does higher ed not sponsor/advertise at large international family-oriented events like the Balloon Fiesta? Events like the Balloon Fiesta, are great opportunities to spread your message to local, national, and international audiences.  Every state has some large family-oriented gathering that will allow advertising/sponsorships. At many events and at a certain price, of course, you can setup your own tent or “corner” to put materials out or do your own semi-related sub-event.

Here are some things to keep in mind when thinking of sponsoring or advertising at large events

• Who is the audience? What is the age, state/country of residence, purpose for coming, how are they getting there, how loyal are they (do they come repeatedly), etc? For example, at the Balloon Fiesta many retired couples travel to the event by RV and stay in a nearby RV park – a growing population that often goes back to classes.  Also, many international and national families travel into the local airport.
• How big is the event? For example, at the Balloon Fiesta, the event overflows off the event grounds and takes over Albuquerque for the entire week. While beer companies really don’t feel it is appropriate or can’t advertise in the event, one beer company places banners around the city and at restaurants welcoming balloon pilots and balloon fans.
• Get into the details of the event. What is the main event, how will it take place, who can see it,  For example, at the Balloon Fiesta, because of the Albuquerque Box, a balloon can stay over the city for a fairly long period of time and can pass over a certain location several times. Also, not only can the people in the event see the balloons, but people all over the city can see it. Imagine if there were advertising on one or more of those balloons. Also, certain roadways become clogged in/out of the event grounds near many billboards.
• How can you tie the main event to your institution? Is there something that makes more sense to advertise. For example, at the Fiesta, your sciences department could host/sponsor a tent at the event for hands-on experiences or experiments about the physics of air balloons for school-age kids or the history department host/sponsor a tent on the history of hot air balloons. Also, several other events take advantage of the large population influx, but are not on the Fiesta grounds or tied to the Fiesta in anyway. Both the Grecian Festival and the Rio Grand Arts Festival take place during the same week and pull in many Fiesta-goers.
• What is the bottom line? What is the goal of advertising or sponsoring the event. Is it to reach the international crowd, increase inquiries, increase applications, etc. Make sure you can measure the effectiveness and put a reasonable goal on the sponsorship. In the physics tent example above,  the goal could be to increase local science related inquiries for a particular age cohort. Then you can determine if you want to sponsor/advertise/hold an outside event again.
• Who else is sponsoring. Guilt by association could play into your advertising/sponsorship if you find yourself in a wrong crowd of fellow advertisers/sponsors. Again, at the Fiesta for example, beer and alcohol is kept to a minimum or is in certain location and not seen widely during the event. This makes the event more family friendly. However, if alcohol is a big deal at the event, you may want to reconsider.

Advertising/sponsoring at a large event could provide your institution an audience from around the country or world and it could be right in your own back yard.

The Athletic Image

As many of you out there know, the athletics marketing team typically operates separately from the academic marketing unit  And we have been faced many times with the question of how the core brand should interact with the athletics brand. Sometimes the athletics brand is part of the core brand and sometimes it becomes an independent brand and at times it is somewhere in between. However the athletics image is connected to the core academic brand through brand architecture, there is a connection between the two entities in the minds of your audiences.

Back as an undergrad, I remember there was a team meeting for athletes that talked directly about how an athlete should conduct themselves and when and where they can wear university logos, sportswear, etc. For example, it was mentioned that no athlete should wear any athletic or university logos when going to a party or out to a casino or other non-favorable places. We were told that we were representatives of the school and should behave as such.

All of this came flooding back into my head when I recently came across a series of fan contest materials for the University of New Mexico. The idea is great, a “who-is-the-biggest-university-football-fan” contest to see who is Lobo Loco. Lobo fans are awesome and very loyal and the contest is a great way to pull them even more into the Lobo teams. So, I kept digging into the contest and saw who was sponsoring the contest.

The contest is sponsored by a local casino, with television commercials of a skimpy-clothed blonde and the university mascot.  The commercials are sexual in nature and the promotion directly ties the athletics program to gambling. The Lobo Loco promotion site says “The action continues all season long with Lobo Loco Free Slot Tournaments every Wednesday night throughout the season inside the Route 66 Casino. Players can sign-up at the Ultimate Rewards booth absolutely free. More than $7,000 in prize money will be given away each week”. Pure sponsorship would have been ok, but to directly tie the athletic image to a casino in a sexual nature is taking it a bit over board. Below are two commercials for the promotion:

After the meeting mentioned above and the athletic scandals at other nationally known universities in the past several years, I was surprised to see the athletic department itself sell its image to the casino. While there is no direct connection to the academics in the marketing materials, it is hard to separate the perceived connection between the athletics and the academic brand of the University.

After hearing some buzz from the school, I understand the University of New Mexico’s marketing team is going to launch a new branding effort in the near future and I doubt they were expecting this.  I also doubt that some of the messages put forth in the commercials are part of the University of New Mexico’s new brand. As this contest is only about a month old, I will interested to see how this will effect the academic brand in the near future.

So what does a university marketing team do to avoid this kind of issue with, not only, the athletics unit, but other university units and departments. Here are some helpful tips:

• Brand dialogue. While athletics marketing teams are familiar with branding, athletics is apart of the university’s core brand in some shape and form. There should be a discussion so both units understand each others goals, strategies, and tactics.  Also, to understand how the two units should interact together.
• Provide some brand tools. While the athletics marketing unit has its own materials and resources, they still need some brand tools to help consolidate messages and some of the creative elements (based on the brand architecture).
• Constant dialogue. Schedule some regular meetings to catch up on the two unit’s progress and how each other can help.  Is there some room for cross-over or collaboration?
• Set guidelines. With any brand, including the core, sub, extension, or independent brand, there are  guidelines to follow. How, what, where, and when each unit is to express their brand?

Also, while the sponsorship has been hailed as one of the largest sponsorships in Lobo athletic history, it doesn’t give the sponsor the right to go nuts. There must be some collaboration between the athletics, academic and sponsoring brands about what is appropriate and not appropriate so the sponsorship is a win-win for all entities involved.  How should the brands look, how they should interact together, etc? After awhile, a negative image, similar to the one portrayed above has the possibility to tarnish both brands.

I am interested if any else out there has had similar issues.

The Power of Following

Having just wrapped up an EMG KnowledgeBuilder on the topic of Twitter with my colleagues @sbiernacki and @tbrock111, my brain is still aflutter with all things Twitter. In particular, the power of being a good follower.

As Twitter newbies, most of us focus on ourselves and what we have to say. Even more seasoned users can make this mistake. Here’s the rub, if we want others to listen to us, we ourselves have to be good listeners. There might be some exceptions…if you’re a celebrity, for example, or a news magazine, more people would likely be interested in following those entities than those entities would be in following those same masses.

Nevertheless, a number of celebrity uber-users like @THE_REAL_SHAQ with 2.2+ million followers, are still following hundreds of people. And our local news station @DenverChannel follows almost all those who follow it; because it understands that its followers are a great source of potential news.

For most of us as individuals or institutions (or units thereof), being listened to (gaining followers) means doing some listening (following) ourselves. Why is it important? Growing your follower base is at the heart of any Twitter strategy you might lay out…whether that is growing readership for your University’s news, increasing alumni participation, engaging prospective students, alerting your campus to emergencies, increasing the number of donors or applications. The goals for a Twitter site can be many; at the heart of each is the need to build a following.

There are three keys to the art of strategic following to grow followers on Twitter:

1. Follow highly ranked voices related to your subject matter – these are Twitter users with lots of followers. Twinfluentials. In general, many will follow you back.  For example, in the marketing business, one of the big power users is @joelcomm, author of Twitter Power. I follow him. He followed me back. He interests me in buying his book. I get the ears and eyes of some of his 76,000+ followers who in turn follow me.  As an aside, how do you know how “twinfluential” individuals are? Number of followers will give you an idea. Apps like Twitterrank and Twitterholic, among others, have developed a bit more of a sophisticated formula to determine ranking based on followers and ability to drive the conversation. You can also find were you rank by the way. Finally, Twitter directories like WeFollow have listings Tweeters in a variety of major categories. Check out who’s there, and make sure to add your Twitter page to the site. A bit of wefollow trivia > at the top of the list under the tag “#highered” is @northcentralcol in Naperville, IL with over 10,000 followers…and following over 10,000.
2. Use Twitter’s search function to identify potential followers and voices to follow. By searching key topics pertinent to your Twitter site, you will find others who share a similar interest or point of view. For example, if you have an alumni site, search on people who use your institution’s name in their posts, follow them and invite them to follow you. If you you’re responsible for your institution’s Twitter news page, invite people to follow you through the institution’s email service or via your newsletters or website. When they follow you, follow them back. You’ll mutually benefit.
3. Don’t just post updates. Engage in conversation. @reply people when you can. RT (retweet) posts that are interesting. Follow Twitter trending topics and commentaries and, either post an @reply to a specific Twitterer, or post to the trending hashtag(#). Talk to those who follow you as those conversations show up in their Twitter streams and are seen by their followers, and also talk to those who show up in searches and are commenting on trending topics. An important caveat here, make your comment relevant to the individual you’re addressing, the subject matter in the post…and relevant to your unit’s or your institution’s point of view. The more interesting and interested you come across, the more following and “twinfluence” you gain.

Allow Students to Tell Your Story

My colleague Ineke Caycedo and I just returned from a 2-day campus consultation for a client. We conducted a series of interviews with senior-level administrators and key communications staff to better understand the institution’s goals, current strategies, available resources (primarily related to Web), and overall vibe of the campus and community. From now until spring, we’ll be working collaboratively with the institution to develop a new website, and more importantly, helping to determine what message we’ll be sending on that website. This isn’t the easiest task given the truly unique position of this institution, but it’s an exciting one and we certainly made significant progress on that front during our visit. The sky really is the limit here.

A Free International Trip!?
As a result of our interviews, one important nugget of information we learned was that the institution has a healthy amount of ‘student-voiced’ marketing ammo that has yet to see the light of day. For example, this college offers one of the best international opportunities of any institution we’ve ever seen. During their second year of study, students are offered a free week-long trip overseas with their classmates. To no surprise, almost all students end up going. As part of the academic component (there is a large one, of course!), students are asked to write a journal documenting their experience. These entries are thoroughly looked over by faculty and the students are given feedback, but they never end up becoming public in any way.

A Huge Opportunity
Truth be told, there might not be a better way to present this unique international experience to prospective students than making these students’ journals easily accessible online! Promoting this type of content is a huge opportunity for colleges and universities. We know from our own and others’ research this is the exact type of approach prospects are looking for and resonate with.

What the Research Tells Us
We know from Edelman’s Trust Barometer that young people most trust people like themselves. This idea was further confirmed on our trip in the Web usability testing we conducted. We were straight up told by the students in several instances that they’re looking to hear from current students. It’s the best way for many of them to learn about different aspects of the college or university, as they can best relate to what they’re hearing.

The bottom line is, if you have any appropriate student-driven media (text, blogs, photos, videos, etc.) sitting around in the depths of your offices and computers, there may very well be an effective way to make that material work for you. And because the production cost is zero since the work has already been done, you’ll only have to spend time doing a little strategizing, editing, and uploading. So if you decide to do a little detective work, good luck! Here’s to hoping you are surprised with what you find.

Interactive Email – eMarketing Workhorse

Throughout the social networking fluff and flurry, a number of marketers I know have relegated interactive email tactics to the “old-and-worn-out” bin. “Nobody emails anymore…it’s sooo yesterday!”

If you’re in that category, it’s time you take a second pass at this tried and true tactic, which has re-emerged as the real workhorse of eMarketing. Don’t get me wrong, social networking in some form is here to stay. No argument that it needs to be a staple in the marketer’s toolbox to help create and support audience engagement.

But email is the real ROI generator, and new interactive and integration capabilities make it more versatile than ever. It is the engine that makes your social networking efforts work harder and pay bigger dividends.

Upside

1. Unlike social networking, which can be a black hole for staff, you can directly link bottom-line results to the effort needed to produce them
2. Like its old-school cousin – direct mail – interactive email directly reaches bona fide prospects
3. Integrating email with your website and social network presence enhances the productivity of all of these channels
4. Interactive email is cost-efficient
5. It is eminently trackable and refinable

Downside

1. Email – even interactive versions – is limited by relatively low open rates
2. It is easy – and probably always will be – for prospects to unsubscribe or identify your email as spam

Six Solutions

1. New, innovative design formats for interactive emails improve open rates – wide-screen format and bold branding ideas, for example
2. Solid database analytics and firm opt-in policies allow you to minimize spam problems, track individual audience behaviors, distinguish between hard and soft bounces, (a discussion here) and hone in on motivational design/copy choices
3. Strategic scheduling and database segmentation give you an incredible ability to manage touch points with critical audiences – by segment
4. Interactivity: Well-designed email campaigns offer stepping-stone interactivity that engages audiences (good discussion here)
5. Multimedia: While video still can’t be reliably embedded in email (Here is a good synopsis of why), the alternative – video GIFS (good example here) and links to your website videos – are effective options
6. Integration with web presence: integrating opt-in email campaign is a great way link your social networking platforms and website promotions

As always, one of the keys is to keep “run-and-gun” unit-driven tactics from taking over. By developing a clear, coordinated approach (here’s an award-winning example) to eMarketing, you’ll find a significant uptick in ROI.

Opportunities Galore

I am sure most of you out there feel that time flies by and many are extremely busy day in and day out. Also with a world that is as connected as ours is today, news and opinions seem to change almost instantaneously. With each change comes new opportunities for marketers to draw in new some new eyes or bring back some old eyes on their products/services.

Everyone has heard the “Cash for Clunkers” phrase over and over and over again these last couple of weeks. That is no accident. But the cheer is not coming from the government as much as it is coming from the dealerships that can take advantage of the opportunity. It seems everytime I hear or see an ad for a local car dealership it incorporates “Cash for Clunkers” or some similar saying.  As we have all figured out, the dealerships are making sure everyone will bring their clunker and buy a car from them using the extra cash.

Not only are the car dealerships taking advantage, but so it Conan O’ Brien and Lexus with his “Conan, Please Blow up my Car” contest. I will let the video do the explaining, check it out (click here). The contest is based around tv viewers sending in videos of their clunkers, the clunkiest car will get blown up and while the owner will receive a new Lexus hybrid.

Recently, I read an article about a hotel in downtown Minneapolis that is taking advantage of Brett Favre’s arrival as a Minnesota Viking.  The hotel created the Brett Favre package where guests stay a couple nights and donate, to the hotel, an old Brett Favre Packer’s jersey and the guest will get a special rate for their third night. The jerseys are then donated to the Boys and Girls Club.

The video below EMG produced for the  Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University when the movie Good Night, and Good Luck came out in 2005. The video below was seen in theaters right before the movie played and was also played at the movies debut in several local cities.

Here are some helpful hints that may help you and your staff catch some opportunites:

1. Eye on the news – keep an eye out for possible upcoming opportunities that may make sense
2. External connections – local business leaders and influencers tend to have some good insights into local news.
3. Internal connections – connect with campus leaders who may have an opportunity that may have “legs”
4. Social networks – watch Facebook, Twitter, and other networks for chatter and buzz about upcoming events or big things that your stakeholders may be putting together or may feel is important to them.
5. Discuss amongst yourselves – make it a point talk with your staff to make the mental connections between the external and internal opportunities. One staff member may have the external opp while another may have the internal opp. Keep the lines open for discussions.
6. Pen to paper – write down several favorite opportunities so that you don’t forget. It may take a awhile before the entire opportunity comes into view, so be sure to take notes on your thoughts and possibilities.
7. Reserves – we all know budgets are tight, but you never know when the big golden opportunity may come available. Keep a little budget for the one opportunity you just can’t pass up.

With some much going on in today’s world, it seems like there are endless possibilites out there.

What Works in Online Fundraising?

I recently had the pleasure of teaming with Julie Chiron, Capital Campaign Web Manager at Cal Berkeley and a skilled, savvy marketing professional, to give a professional workshop on the “state of the art” in online fundraising. I want to share some of the highlights of our presentation with the brand managers out there who support fundraisers.

Is Online Giving Growing?
Sure is. While the rate of growth has declined recently due to tough economic conditions, the expansion of online giving is far outpacing overall fundraising performance. Online giving in 2008 grew between 14% and 28% (depending on the vertical and who did the research). This is a decline from the several years prior, when annual growth of online donations was more like 40%-45%, but it’s still a huge positive – overall giving was down 4% to 5%. It’s an area marketers need to explore.

Here’s the online fundraising leaderboard for higher education for 2008, (Chronicle of Philanthropy), with the five-year growth for each:

What’s the Buzz?
Nobody raises money (much, anyway) on social networks, but combining online community-building with other tactics has achieved super results. Here are some interesting stats on online giving:

• Online reaches new donors (most clients find 20%-30% are first-time donors)
• 35% – 65% of donor site visitors come from satellite/landing URLs
• Online produces relatively small gifts (averaging $150-$750) but from a many givers

What’s Not Working?
In counseling client institutions, here are the top issues that we find limit the effectiveness of fundraising programs:

1. Absence of a motivational mission/vision on the donor site
2. Absence of a motivational description of how donations are used and why
3. Social networking pages that are not linked to fundraising function
4. Text-heavy donor sites that present the institutional perspective
5. Hiding or failing to promote “The Ask” on the donor site
6. Outdated technology, software glitches, and obscure navigation on donor sites

What’s Working?

On the other hand, institutions that have achieved the best results point to the following Top Ten tactics that have improved the bottom line:

1. Creative/artistic photo galleries of donors that reveal personal motivations
2. Adding a shopping cart application to donor pages
3. Measuring results of 2-3 alternate emails in real time to hone in best motivators
4. Micro-targeting segments through tight, area-specific social networking
5. Adding online tools to help volunteers host local events and small-group community building
6. Combining email with mobile texting to offer previews/reminders/promos
7. Using high-production-value push-pull emails with clear call to action
8. Creating a campaign website that provides depth for campaign themes/results
9. Engaging audiences in social network mysteries, contests, and donor challenges
10. Integrating multiple social networks with the donor microsite

Have a look at the full online giving presentation by clicking here.