Walking through Capen Hall, Evan Halstead downplays the fact he, along with thousands of current and potential UB students, sees a four-foot-tall snapshot of his own face hanging on the wall.
"I don't make a big deal out of it," the first-year physics grad student said when asked about the extra attention a larger-than-life version of oneself can attract. "It's kind of cool to get recognition."
Halstead and his twin brother, Adam, were among the first representatives of UB's ubiquitous "Be" ad campaign. When the campaign was being designed during his junior year, Halstead was approached through the Honors program, asking for people who may be interested in representing UB in advertisements. Originally, he was only asked to pose for brochures, but several months later they asked him about the walls in Capen.
Those who walk past the pictures in Capen Hall daily might not even notice the stylish snapshots, but to transfer students and high school seniors, those ads could represent the difference between attending UB or seeking a college education elsewhere.
In the last seven to 10 years, marketing colleges and universities has become intensely competitive, and UB has been right in the thick of it. The Capen photos are just one part of UB's "Be" campaign, designed and implemented three years ago to encourage future enrollment, said Mary Pitts, director of Undergraduate Marketing.
All colleges try to get high school students' attention through campaigns aimed at encouraging them to attend. That was the goal behind the "Be" campaign, but as even as it nears the end of its two-to-three year life cycle, it's interesting to reflect on how "Be" came to be.
The campaign started about three years ago, the first of a new and unified system of UB advertising. Even if you didn't receive the mail containing this campaign, as current sophomores and freshmen have, you have still seen the campaign, probably every day. The same letters and cards UB sends to high school students hang on the walls in Capen Hall, where the admission center is located.
The same pictures that show the back of a student's head with the word "Be," then another picture in a campus setting with an inspirational word added, like, in Halstead's case, "Be Innovative" or "Be Unique," were incorporated into a larger advertising campaign.
"It's a different approach than what most other schools use," Pitts said.
Marketing campaigns may seem simple, but it is a long process that is deeply researched and designed to target high school students to grab their attention, and their tuition dollars.
The pictures on the walls of Capen Hall cost about $20,000 to $25,000, according to Pitts, but they need to be there so students touring UB see the same campaign they got in the mail.
The complex process of designing a marketing campaign starts with a creative review process. After polling students, high schoolers, professors and counselors, UB's own marketing communications department sits down to answer to questions like, "What is UB's unique position?" and "What do people see as our selling point?" And once the data is collated into a position statement, the resulting brief is sent on to the next step in the process.
According to Pitts, features like current students' quotes in brochures are what many prospective students say they are looking for.
"We know from research that high school students would much rather hear about a university from existing students," she said.
Pitts' office, however, only comes up with the marketing theme. The actual visuals come from the creative services department in Crofts Hall. As assistant vice president for Marketing and Creative Services, Peter Killian works not only on campaigns like "Be," but also for any department at UB needing visuals to fit a position statement. Creative Services then starts its own research and interviewing process to design a visual concept to complement the marketing idea.
Sometimes, Killian, the research costs nothing. Local high schools and on-campus groups are used to help test designs and come up with ideas. After the research comes the ideas to match the position statement. Marketing communications might work jointly with Creative Services to get the final product as they fine tune, conduct testing to gauge effectiveness, and revise, to come up with a campaign.
"The largest expense that any college, including UB, incurs in marketing to potential students (includes) publishing, printing and mailing," Pitts said.
UB has tried to save money by using online chat rooms, instant messaging, and e-mails as well, though Pitts said there is no substitute for physical mailing.
"Students still like to have something in their hands from the school," Pitts said.
Every detail of advertising is considered, including the location of each photo - particularly the deeper meaning of the "Be" billboards' placement in Capen Hall.
"We kind of view the lobby (of Capen) as the starting point of UB," Pitts said.
Even if you consider the ad pictures dynamic, after seeing people like Halstead on the walls of Capen for two years, some current students pass them every day without a second glance.
"They don't really do much for me," Robert Czapla, a senior mechanical and aerospace engineering major. "I don't know what the artist was trying to convey."
Dima Maddah, a sophomore pharmacy major, might be proof that the "Be" campaign is on its last legs.
"I don't really notice them that much because I walk by them every day," he said.
The signs haven't lost all their effect.
"It builds the atmosphere of the school," said Joe Stinson, a junior exercise science major.
Stinson said he remembered when the signs were first displayed and that they were a big improvement over the previous campaign.
"As soon as they put them up, I was looking at them for two straight weeks. It makes this place feel like a real university," he said.
Regardless how students feel about the current campaign, it will not be long before new ads cover Capen this summer, a campaign that has been under development since before Halstead graduated.
"It takes almost a whole year to put a campaign together," Pitts said. "It's not as simple as just throwing pictures on the wall."
