May 30, 2015

Thanks to the Times Higher Education, I came across this blog last week by a University of Western Australia professor bemoaning the university's new advertising slogan, "Pursue Impossible," a grammatical error noted even by his 9-year old daughter.  The visual arts UWA seems to be installing around campus certainly make this a more interesting conceit than most "branding" campaigns at colleges and universities around this country. Let's give the university some credit for trying to do something more than simply assault the public with any kind of a generic marketing slogan. 

I spent a few days going to hundreds of university and college websites, looking for any marketing "campaign."  Such campaigns consist of a catchphrase prominently displayed on their home page, usually showing up over and over again at the top or bottom of every one of their webpages.  For the record, I was not interested in "mottos," which tend to be more sacrosanct (often in Latin), but sought out more obvious examples of branding to make the school stand out from others in a crowded marketplace.  I am actually pleased to announce that even though I noted about a 100 such mottos, at least twice as many institutions did not have one.  Eventually, I stopped my research as the options are pretty limited:

The Simplistic -- Maybe these institutions were paying the ad team by the word.

"Impact" -- The University of Evansville (Design elements matter-- look at the logo in the upper left corner.);

"Unstoppable" -- Mt. St. Mary's (Sounds like they got it straight from a Tim Rice musical.);

"We are UNC" -- University of Northern Colorado (I should introduce you to the Man from Uncle.);

"Imagine More" -- Ferris State University (I don't think anyone has a problem imagining more.);

"Make It Real" -- Virginia Commonwealth University (Inspiration for Lars?);

"250+" -- Brown University (As far as I can tell, Brown is the only Ivy League school that might have such an ad campaign. If so, "250+" is it.  When you are Ivy, you don't need clinging ad campaigns as others do.  Besides 250+ might be a statement more about student numbers than years of existence.  I can think of some less fortunate institutions that could use this approach: "5000 and getting smaller everyday!").

The Template (Version 1) -- 3 principles that form the legs of the institution's stools (so to speak).

"Earth♦Energy♦Environment" -- Colorado School of Mines (I am not sure I have the right symbol between the words.);

"Sustainability•Excellence•Service" -- Florida Gulf Coast University (I wonder how much time is spent in meetings determining the symbols between each pillar of these slogans.);

"Strength Skill Character" -- Florida State University (The website shows no symbols.  More on punctuation below.  Maybe Florida State sees no separation of these three traits.);

"Courage Strength Fortitude" -- Medgar Evers College (No symbols again.  Perhaps a little ironic for an institution named after one of the most symbolic of the civil rights' activists.);

"COURAGEOUS. confident. CLARION." -- Clarion University  (Capitalization captured exactly as shown on the website, although, there are different fonts for each word.  Not sure why confidence is less dramatic than courage?);

"Transform. Excel. Lead." -- Saint Augustine's University (Doesn't have the alliteration of Clarion's, but it does have the dramatic effect of additional brevity with each word.).

The Template (Version 2) -- For the institutions that prefer duality over triality.  But don't mistake that for additional need for brevity.  They just have more space for more complex ideas.

"One World One UC Davis" -- University of California, Davis (Multiple fonts and colors here. Shouldn't the decision have been to use one font, one color for symbolism?);

"Bright Past. Brilliant Future." -- University of California, Irvine (There could be a whole separate category of references to the future.);

"Your Future, Our Focus" -- Northern Illinois University (See, I told you.  However, we have our first entrance of the comma to supplant the period, or the non-punctuation.);

"Living the Legacy Inventing the Future" -- Lamar University (I guess "Bright Past. Brilliant Future." was already trademarked.);

"Challenging Minds, Changing Lives" -- Jackson State University (I always love it when we are supposed to guess if a word, such as "challenging" here, is meant to be a verb or an adjective.  We all know that minds that are challenging will change lives, just not for the better);

"Learn in the city. Lead in the world." -- Northeastern Illinois University (I guess when you are one of the Chicago universities without "Chicago" in your name, you need to find a subtle way to let people know that.);

"Mountains & Minds" -- Montana State University (One of my favorites.  Simple duality, rare use of the ampersand. Lovely!);

"Now & Forever" -- Emporia State University (Lame. Sorry, Emporia State.  The ampersand is still elegant, and works well with it encased by the profile of one of your buildings. However the "now & forever" idea . . . snore.);

"Be Great. Start Here." -- South Dakota State University (Not sure if you finish there to be great.  Sounds like a slogan best serving a two-year institution.);

"Enter to learn. Depart to serve." -- Bethune-Cookman University (An elegant motto, but probably too easy for rivals to mock.  "What else would a cookman do but serve?  Bring me my quarter-pounder with cheese!").

Color My World -- The more obnoxious the school's colors, the greater tendency there is to include that with the brand.

"Big Orange. Big Ideas." -- University of Tennessee (It is, or course, all in orange font.);

"America's Brightest Orange" -- Oklahoma State (They go more subtle than Tennessee, only Orange is Orange.);

"There's no place like purple" -- Kansas State University (Almost really clever, but only if University of Kansas had gone in for The Wizard of Oz reference fully.  Unfortunately, Kansas didn't.);

"Go Blue!" -- The University of Maine (Must make for some interesting hazing acitivities at the sororities and fraternities.)

Don't Want To Piss Off The English Faculty -- Get the punctuation in there, even if inelegant or ungrammatical.

"This is Auburn."  Auburn University (In at least one place, I saw this turned into "Because this is Auburn." making the period all the more painful.  Worse is that the slogan is basically saying "Auburn is Auburn."  Wow!);

"The Trojan Warrior Spirit Lives Here." Troy University (No exclamation mark?);

"Be Boulder."  -- University of Colorado (The slogan looms larger than the university's name on the website header.  That is certainly bolder.);

"Find your Westfield." -- Westfield State (Thank goodness, "your" is italicized."  Otherwise this makes no sense.);

"No Limits." -- University of South Carolina  (Isn't the period the ultimate punctuation for limits?  Ah, to have used the good old ellipses . . . .");

"Different.  On Purpose." -- DeVry University (The "on purpose," of course, is in a different font.  The brand is not particularly different.);

"Go. BoiseState" -- Boise State University (WTF?  Maybe this is a good time to list some slogans that are truly WTF?)

WTF??

"TRUEMU" -- Eastern Michigan University (Two shades of green to distinguish the TRU from the EMU.  Perhaps better suited as an ad campaign for Australia Tourism Council.);

"Exclusively for Adults" -- Thomas Edison State College (For mature audiences only, apparently.);

"We, The Optimists" -- University of California, Los Angeles (I don't even know where to start.);

"I D E A Fusion" -- Old Dominion University (Please fuse your words!);

And then there's just this weird thing about size. I didn't think it matters, but apparently it does (see University of Tennessee above):

"Think Big We Do" -- University of Rhode Island;

"Start Something Big" -- Eastern Washington University;

"Make No Little Plans Here" -- Oral Roberts University.

I am not sure what I make of all of these (there are many more I haven't referenced).  I think back to my grade school assignments where I had to write a story with a list of 25 random words produced by the teacher. I am sure one could do that very easily with these slogans:

We are UNC (1), making our mark on the world (2), redefining the classroom (3), learning to a greater degree (4), fulfilling the promise (5), preserving the extraordinary(6), far above (7) where knowledge and character meet (8).  We, the optimists (9), dare to be first (10), powering silicone valley (11), potential realized (12), the foundation for the Gator nation (13). Unstoppable (14), great journeys begin here (15), the friendliest campus in the south (16), now & forever (17).

(1) Northern Colorado; (2) Delaware State; (3) Lake Superior State; (4) Central Missouri; (5) Indiana; (6) Alaska, Fairbanks; (7) Kansas; (8) Alcorn State; (9) UCLA; (10) Delaware; (11) San Jose State; 12) Albany State; (13) Florida; (14) Mt. St. Mary's; (15) Eastern Kentucky; (16) Jacksonville State; (17) Emporia State