Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/337193
45 BizEd July/August 2014 DAVI D VE R NON /G ETTY I MAG ES BY SHARON SHINN Bringing Business Back Sometimes management can seem like a dull and stuffy major, par- ticularly to a teenager first thinking about college. So when the Col- lege of Business at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond was developing a new recruiting tool aimed at 16-to-18-year-olds, it wanted something that would make them see business—and the business school—in a whole new light. "Three years ago, we gathered focus groups composed of students and alumni," says Koshia Silver, former director of public relations and communications at the UCO College of Business. "The consen- sus was that the College of Busi- ness felt outdated both figuratively and physically." To give itself a fresh make- over, the school invested more than US$1 million in building renovations and launched a new campaign: "Let business take you there." Central to the school's campaign was a music video called "#BusinessBack," based on a popular Justin Timberlake song. It's anything but dull and stuffy: It features students and professors dancing in lounges and classrooms. Among the UCO staff who make humorous appearances are the College of Business dean Mickey Hepner, assistant deans Suzanne Clinton and Lisa Miller, and asso- ciate dean K.J. Tullis. Says Silver, "With the video, we were able to take our viewers on a journey. We made the video funny enough to keep viewers engaged, but still offered valuable takeaway information in the lyrics." The school is already consider- ing its next campaign. "This video allowed us to break the mold, and I think our students will expect us to do something similar in the future," she says. Her advice for other schools thinking about a video shoot? "Really consider your target demo- graphic. What attracts them? What will make them want to find out more information? Our world is more diverse and technological now, and it is our job to keep up." See the video at www.youtube. com/watch?v=KqaRMOnlobk&fea ture=youtu.be. Accreditation Celebration Earning accreditation from AACSB International is something many business schools like to promote to their constituents, but the Col- lege of Business at the University of Arkansas in Fort Smith went about that promotion in its own distinc- tive way when it received initial accreditation in June 2013. In addition to releasing the usual press announcements, the college developed a campaign suggesting that accreditation meant its stu- dents would have splendid future prospects. The promotion was tied to a 1986 song by Timbuk3 titled "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." The school printed and distributed 500 shirts with the "Future's So Bright" theme on the front and AACSB and university logos on the back. It also distributed sunglasses that displayed both the AACSB seal and the university logo. The whole campaign was built around a two-minute video recast- ing the Timbuk3 song as a cel- ebration of AACSB accreditation. The school hired a local aspiring The video was created during the summer break of 2013 and released once classes resumed in August. Decals placed at all the college's entrances and exits promoted the "#BusinessBack" video and encour- aged students to join the conversa- tion about it on Twitter. To heighten anticipation the week before the launch, the university used social media channels to release bits of information and screen shots of the music video. During this same week, the school hosted its annual Business Bash event, where repre- sentatives from each department staffed booths and answered ques- tions about various majors. All the effort paid off, as the video was viewed more than 2,800 times by June 2014. Response from the targeted demographic was largely posi- tive—which certainly wasn't a sure thing, Silver admits. "This definitely was not your typical and safe busi- ness ad, so we were a bit worried about the type of feedback we might receive," she says. But a wide range of stakeholders loved it, as evidenced by the answers given to a survey that asked how individuals viewed the school before and after seeing the video. Some respondents said the video made the school seem hip and "super awesome." Wrote one incoming student, "I was dreading school, but after seeing that video I'm excited." That kind of enthusiasm is a pretty good return on a promotion that, at US$3,000, wasn't particu- larly expensive. In fact, given how many times the video has been watched, it cost about $1.07 per view. "This is comparable to the price of direct mail and other pro- motional pieces," says Silver.