Additional reporting contributed by Miami University student Audrey Krief.
A few months ago, Miami's Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Michele Sparks introduced an ad campaign during the Miami Board of Trustees meeting. In a follow-up interview, Miami University student Audrey Krief asked Sparks about the video creation process.
"We knew from our brand research that we did that we needed to be focused on our outcome," Sparks said. "Those outcomes can take shape in many ways."
Sparks stated that the first way would be through Mami alumni and the things that they do after they graduate and leave Miami. The second way would be through the current students and the goals they achieve while they are here.
"The great things they are creating, what they get to be involved with within certain internships, how they're creating products and businesses. That was the idea behind this," Sparks said.
When Krief asked Sparks about the future of the campaign, Sparks replied that the expectations that her team and herself have are that the video and the slogan stick around for a couple of years.
"We anticipate that we will probably be using some version of it in some alumni marketing efforts that will be coming up in the next year, but we are still exploring that as well."
During the interview, Sparks told Krief that the main goal of the video itself is to draw in and recruit incoming freshmen on campus.
"We have a whole marketing plan strategy for recruitment of students," Sparks said. "It really was a big part of that, and also brand awareness."
I had the pleasure of speaking with Miami's Manager of Social Media and Marketing Strategy, Kelly Bennett, and she provided added a little more insight into the campaign and answered the big "what next" questions.
Bennett talked about how in the future the campaign might be involved in future events at football games and in the Armstrong Student Center and involve giving out T-shirts with the "From Now On" slogan written on them. There will also be interactive activities planned at these locations.
"We definitely want to keep it going and keep telling these stories and collect these stories so that we can continue to have content that goes alongside with the video," Bennett said. "So not just people that were featured during that one time in the video, but how do we continue to tell great stories and tie that back with the campaign."
I asked Bennett if the campaign was going to affect current Miami students in any way. What took me by surprise was that she asked how the campaign currently affects me. I responded by stating that I love the fact that the slogan actually resonates with me and how it plays a big role in my life as a current student. I told her how I love that there is a visual effort to recruit and encourage incoming students who are coming onto campus for the first time and them seeing this video makes them feel welcomed. After my response, Bennett went on to talk about current students on campus.
"We want to get more current students involved and have them feel a part of the campaign. I think that there will be more layers to come and there will be other pieces that will be coming out soon. I hope that students will feel a part of it and feel like they can relate to it and be proud and say 'this is Miami'."
With Bennett's responses in mind, I turned to incoming Miami freshman Devin Sezbo, who had the pleasure of watching the video. I asked him if the video had any influence on his decision at all, and he responded with the following.
"I was almost certain that I was going to go to OSU (Ohio State University) because they offered more money than Miami, but after watching the video, it made me feel some type of way, and I instantly told my parents that I decided that I wanted to go to Miami instead."
The "From Now On" campaign has the potential to skyrocket Miami's enrollment and bring in new students and inspire them to be something great in this world. It's safe to say that hearing the slogan "From Now On" won't be going away anytime soon.