“The more we work with UWM, the more impressed we are. People are getting excited about it and feeling pride in the place.”
– Nancy Levner, managing director and principal of Lipman Hearne

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with the help of a marketing agency, is assessing its “Learn More” marketing brand campaign and searching for a new brand, officials said.

The Chicago-based agency Lipman Hearne was hired at the beginning of this fiscal year in hopes that it could help transform a new brand to be affiliated with the UWM campus, officials said.

UWM utilized ad agency Bersant Communications for the last eight years, but the contract expired in summer, said Tom Luljak, vice chancellor for university relations and communications.

State law mandates that UWM go through a re-bidding process for a contract every four years, he said. UWM put out a request and 19 agencies applied from Wisconsin and other states. The final two agencies were Bersant and Lipman Hearne, he said.

Lipman Hearne specializes in marketing for higher education and for non-profit organizations, said Nancy Levner, managing director and principal of the agency.

She said half of Lipman Hearne’s cases are colleges and universities.

“We were very impressed with their portfolio,” Luljak said.

He said that Lipman Hearne and UWM are now in the research phase on how the public views the previous campaign, “Learn More.”

Luljak said UWM knew “Learn More” would last about three to four years. “There’s no question that (the) ‘Learn More’ campaign worked at a couple of levels,” he said.

Levner said that Lipman Hearne is starting to prepare a report and is doing research about “Learn More.”

“What’s important is how the people it’s aimed at assess it,” she said. “What they see as the essence of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.”

The agency will be working with students, faculty and staff and community leaders to assess the previous brand campaign.

Levner said that the agency will work with students and staff of varying backgrounds — first-year students, graduate students, seniors on track to graduate this spring, sophomores and juniors, minority undergraduates, staff with Student Affairs, faculty members — to get a feel for how the previous brand felt to the campus community.

“It’s really because what we’re doing has to speak to all constituents,” she said.

Levner said that the agency will be doing qualitative research through focus groups and informal discussions. UWM’s Center for Urban Initiatives and Research will be doing quantitative research through phone interviews with high school students and a Web-based survey, Levner said.

“The research that Lipman Hearne is doing will assist us in defining ourselves so that our internal and external constituents understand where we are going,” said Chancellor Carlos Santiago in an e-mail.

Luljak said that changing the brand will help reinforce the current agenda, encourage diversity and build appreciation for the “tremendous research” of UWM.

“All institutions change and evolve over time and it is important to be as clear as we can about the direction in which we are moving,” Santiago said.

Levner said UWM has changed a lot in that time — a new chancellor, a particular vision and a sense of increased pride in the university among alumni.

Levner said that UWM needs to have a “unifying of the message.”

“The more we work with UWM, the more impressed we are,” Levner said. “People are getting excited about it and feeling pride in the place.”

> Comments