Advertising coordination and collaboration

The Division of Communications and Marketing is responsible for coordinating the university’s advertising and marketing initiatives, pursuant to PPM 3300-3340. What this means for you is that you'll benefit from insights gained over years of advertising practice and diversified advertising goals, as well as benefit from pre-negotiated rates based on aggregate institutional advertising spends.

The role of the division

The Division of Communications and Marketing serves in five key capacities for university advertising:

• Negotiates and maintains a universitywide contract with an external partner who helps execute advertising campaigns for all university units. DCM works through high-level issues with the vendor to ensure the university's collective advertising goals are met.
• Creates and executes an institution-wide brand awareness strategy and advertising campaign (eID/password required to access link) built to benefit all campuses, colleges and units. This strategy includes coordination for K-State's outdoor advertising presence in addition to television and digital.
• Manages strategy development and media buys for university-level campaigns in support of new student recruitment for the Manhattan campus at the undergraduate and graduate level, both domestically and internationally.
• Facilitates coordination and collaboration among all campuses, colleges, departments and units carrying out advertising in support of strategic enrollment management through the Advertising Coordination Council.
• Serves university units in need of brand advisement, copywriting, graphic design and web development assistance that support advertising initiatives.
• Monitors university unit adherence to best practices in advertising, branding and more.

Aligning advertising strategies

It is important that we ensure our advertising strategies are in alignment between campuses, colleges and departments and other units, as this helps maximize our overall impact in the market and avoid any potential redundancies or overlap.

K-State's external advertising partner, in partnership with the Division of Communications and Marketing, will be well versed in all of K-State's advertising strategies: Overarching brand awareness campaigns that are institutionwide, campus-level campaigns, college-level campaigns and department-level campaigns. This means when you work with our external agency partner, bring them your ideas, goals and objectives, and then marry those up with their recommendations on how you can best complement but not duplicate any other ongoing campaigns.

Aligning advertising creative in the market

It is very important for K-State to look coordinated in the marketplace. While our reporting structures are important inside the university, external audiences rarely care to understand their intricacies. By following K-State's brand guidelines (PDF) when executing your creative, you'll help us ensure K-State's brand is consistent and compelling.

Questions?

Questions about how to proceed with an advertising campaign? Reach out to Ashley Bourne at ashley07@k-state.edu.