2020-21 Gies Business Marketing & Communications Annual Report

@gies business I tried to outdo Dean Brown’s photos at Zion NP with my own at Yosemite.

How’d I do?

Fostering engagement with Gies Office of Marketing & Communications 2020-2021 Annual Report

We build engagement The Marketing & Communications (MarCom) team advances the Gies message through creative, targeted, and effective engagement that supports the efforts of each faculty and staff member and every unit in the College. And we’re intentional in how we do it—aligning our messages with the College’s strategic priorities and our Business on Purpose brand promise. It’s how we help build strong connections with all stakeholders, support successful on-campus and online programs, and enhance the College’s reputation for innovation and excellence.

We think strategically Effective messaging starts with a clear strategy. Our team’s experience in media, communications, market research, and branding provides the expertise to build a clear, brand-based strategy for every project. This year, one of those projects included the launch of new graduate degrees—the online Master of Science in Management (iMSM) and the Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA).

We researched potential audiences, defined each program’s benefits, assessed the most effective communication approaches, and set the strategy: a media campaign, complete with a quiz that gives students an idea of what program best matches their goals and interests. With more than 1,300 submissions for online programs and 1,100 submissions for residential programs, it was a strategy that got results.

That’s just one example of the more than 580 projects the MarCom team completed this year, and it’s how we approach each opportunity to build the Gies brand.

We deliver results 580+

100+

80+

200+

meetings supported by promotion,

overhauled and 55+ new web pages

technical support, or both

created across multiple live sites

46

24

Projects tracked

Virtual events, webinars, or

Videos produced

News stories on our website

Web pages modified, managed, and

Audio ads for national radio and Spotify

20+

Mailings/packet projects managed

80+

Gies Style Guide pages updated to align with University branding

13,000+

12,000+

62,000+

9,000+

Facebook followers

LinkedIn followers

Twitter followers

Instagram followers

Promoting faculty and staff The MarCom team thinks creatively and strategically to support the work of our faculty and staff. Some of that work included building morale and community during the pandemic as well as promoting and communicating scholarly initiatives and educational efforts of Gies faculty and staff. Throughout, our goal is to promote faculty and staff accomplishments and enhance our College’s reputation.

Expanding internal communication Supported 10+ faculty and staff meetings, including 4 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion sessions, 2 town halls, and 4 strategic priority listening sessions Created and delivered 50+ issues of the weekly Bottom Line newsletter for faculty and staff

Launched the “Inside Gies” internal website in partnership with ITP

Providing resources

Developed a media strategy to support the recruitment of 960+ panelists for the Gies Business Research Lab

Created 3 different design themes for a “Conference in a Box” package that includes guides, checklists, and playbooks for hosting conferences

Building community

Supported faculty and staff during COVID by creating and distributing 425 care packages, 30+ Zoom backgrounds, and 120+ physical backgrounds Developed 24 faculty orientation packets to welcome them to the Gies family

Promoting faculty expertise

Created 50+ news stories about faculty and staff and 250+ Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook posts, including one Twitter post promoting “The Human Element in Online Learning”—an article by Gies faculty in Inside Higher Ed—that generated 25,000+ impressions

Connecting with prospective stud

We support the efforts of the College to expand life-changing access to a Gies education by creating communica strategies targeted specifically to each student audience and carrying out those strategies in order to meet enro We do that by developing creative, compelling messaging and materials that engage prospective students with the unique opportunities, the community, the support, the values, and the path to purpose that come with a Gi

Undergraduate Created and coordinated the distribution of 1,700+ welcome packets to admitted domestic students as part of the undergraduate recruitment and yield campaign

Developed materials that share the Gies experience, including the BIF virtual tour video, Gies Business Hype video, and Undergraduate Welcome video, which together received 3,000+ views Created 20+ news stories for the Poets&Quants partner publication, which generated 19M+ impressions Worked with the admissions team to develop a robust recruitment campaign, which included 43 emails and 4 text messages to prospective and admitted undergraduate students Developed and implemented a brand tracking study, with 560 participants, to measure Gies brand awareness and solicit information on how undergraduate students and families make decisions

dents

Specialized Master’s Degrees

ation and marketing ollment goals. h the Gies experience— ies education.

Developed a media strategy and created a campaign for the launch of our Master of Science in Business Analytics that produced nearly 200 leads and the Top Funnel ad campaign on LinkedIn, with 350,000 impressions, 1,100+ clicks, and 32 leads

Supported the “Get Ready for Gies” virtual event series, which attracted 180+ participants from residential programs

Online Programs Developed a Facebook campaign for the launch of the iMSM that produced 1.3M impressions, 6,300 clicks, and 25 leads

Created a streaming TV campaign for our online programs that included a Stackable Content video, which generated 1.5M impressions

Promoting the student experienc

The Gies experience is unique, personal, and transformative. The MarCom team works intentionally to suppo the efforts of the College in creatively sharing the Gies experience. We do it through stories, messaging, and events that build pride, foster community, and create opportunities for all students. It’s how we support their path to purpose.

Building pride Supported Advancement by developing and distributing congratulatory packages to 3,000 Gies graduates Organized delivery of 2,700+ welcome gift packages to online students

Coordinated the distribution of iVenture Accelerator pride packages to 50 students in the 2020 cohort

iVenture Accelerator Powered by Gies Business 1

Staying safe Distributed 2,700+ masks to on-campus undergraduate and graduate students and to 700 online students Supported student safety by featuring a current Gies student sharing the importance of mask wearing on Twitter, which generated 18,400 impressions

ce

Connecting virtually

ort

Highlighting unique opportunities

r

Partnered with the eLearning team to support the Office of Undergraduate Affairs in coordinating our first virtual Signing Day, a unique Gies tradition, that drew 68 student participants from across the country and the world and 4,100 viewers through our Facebook live event Supported the Office of Advancement and the eLearning team in coordinating the December 2020 and May 2021 Convocations for undergraduate, residential, and online students, spending 128+ hours recording, editing, and finishing the 16 videos

Developed and implemented a strategy for the launch of our Disruption Lab, which included 38,000 direct messages, drew 150 participants to Information Nights, and generated 600 views of the Disruption Lab video Promoted 3 webinars and developed accompanying materials to support the Magelli Office of Experiential Learning’s effort to recruit clients for the Business in Action course required for all juniors

Being welcoming Supported Gies New Student Welcome, which was attended by 300+ freshmen and transfer students

Engaging our alumni

We are intentional in our efforts to ass

in building meaningful engagement w

members of the Gies family and excep Whether through virtual or in-person

newsletters, or career and lifelong lea their work in building a continuum of

Gies graduate throughout their alumn

relationship with the students, faculty

Connecting via social media Created 1,250+ Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook posts featuring Gies alumni, including one Twitter post about finance alum and former football player Adeoye Adeyemo, which generated 23,700 impressions

Engaging through em

Created and emailed a virtual brochure welcom 2,400 recent graduates to the alumni exper

4 issues of Gies Quarterly, with 60+ articles o interest to alumni, emailed to 60,000 Gies stakeholders

Building career connections

sist our Office of Advancement

with our alumni, who are valued

ptional resources for our College. events, media coverage,

Helped launch GiesLInk, our professional networking platform for alumni and online students

arning opportunities, we support connection that reaches each

ni journey and that deepens their Provides ongoing support for GiesLink as it grows beyond 4,600+ members

y, and mission of the College.

mail

ming rience

of

Welcome

to the Gies Alumni Family

Hosting virtual events Supported 17+ virtual events, including: • Spring Luncheon, 440+ attendees

• Hoeft Technology & Management program’s 25th anniversary,

800+ attendees

• iMBA’s 5th anniversary, 200+ attendees

Partnered with the Office of Advancement to host Gies Giving Day, which raised $18,500+ for the Gies Emergency Scholarship Fund

Building our reputation Our College has built an outstanding reputation for groundbreaking research, inspired innovation, and educational excellence. The MarCom team focuses our efforts on amplifying that reputation and building our Business on Purpose brand promise by highlighting the accomplishments of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and programs through feature stories, videos, and intentional, targeted media outreach. By promoting our people, we promote our brand, extend the Gies story, and advance the College’s reputation.

Demonstrating thought leadership REPRINT

IN AN ERA DEFINED BY TRANSFORMATION, LEADERS MUST NOT ONLY DEMONSTRATE GREAT AGILITY, BUT ALSO CONSIDER THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE MOST AFFECTED BY CHANGE.

The Hazards and Opportunities of Managing Rapid Change

BY JEFFREY BROWN • OCTOBER 29, 2020 ILLUSTRATION BY ISTOCKPHOTO

Our sector is so invested in its existing way of doing business that is unable, or unwilling, to respond nimbly to new challenges.

THIS AGE OF disruption presents higher education leaders with two pressing questions. First, how do we effect rapid change in a near monolithic industry that has been deliberately designed for staying power rather than for agility? And, more important, how do we support our stakeholders as they adjust to rapid internal and external change?

For more than half a century, U.S. institutions of higher education have harnessed a successful business model that has positioned them as global leaders. This model has led to best-in-class program quality, increasing domestic and international demand, and dramatic expansion of academic, residential, and student services facilities. Two pieces of legislation spurred our industry even further—the 1944 G.I. Bill, which funded education for World War II veterans, and the 1958 National Defense Education Act, which pumped 1 billion USD into higher education over four years.

These two investments have fueled nearly three decades of growth in postsecondary enrollments in the United States. In 1959, college enrollments among traditional-aged students stood at 3.6 million; by 1991, 14.1 million students were attending college.

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON Over the last two decades, a different story has emerged. State and federal funding has declined by 7 billion USD over the past 10 years. The accumulation of student debt has raised concerns about the financial health of a generation. And while enrollments have continued to grow since 1990, the rate of degree attainment in the United States by those age 25 to 34 has fallen from second in the world to 13th among developed nations.

Meanwhile, long-accepted admissions practices related to issues such as earlydecision admission and transfers, which

Supported the submission and publication of 7 thought leadership pieces in a variety of high-profile business publications, including those shown here authored by Clinical Assistant Professor Zack Kertcher, Dean Jeffrey Brown, and Associate Professor Tiffany White

Connecting with peer deans Developed and delivered several messages to peer deans, including an email campaign announcing the launch of the Illinois Strategic Organizations Initiative, which had a 30% open rate

Promoting our rankings

Sharing faculty expertise Supported 17 Teaching and Learning webinars, each of which had an average of 600 participants

Strategically managed the rankings that prospective audiences use in their decisionmaking process, including: US News, Poets&Quants, and Princeton Review

The Office of Marketing & Communications (MarCom) serves the entire College to promote programs, degrees, units, centers, and events and to monitor compliance with Gies and University of Illinois branding guidelines.

Our team includes: Jan Slater, Chief Marketing Officer Aaron Bennett, Associate Director of Marketing Communications Priyanka Bhargava, Director of Insights & Strategy Craig Choate, Digital Marketing Coordinator Khaoula Dellahi, Junior Marketing Communications Specialist Megan Elkins, Senior Marketing Coordinator Stephanie Faraci, Marketing Communications Specialist Mindy Garth, Assistant to Chief Marketing Officer Tyler Gegg, Web Content Specialist Kristy Inman, Junior Marketing Communications Specialist Tom Moone, Senior Marketing Coordinator Kathleen Onyejekwe, Brand Manager Garrett Pauley, Director of Digital Media Paige Potter, Project Coordinator Lindsey Savoie, Marketing Manager Ryan Smith, Video Producer Jeremy White, Project Manager Jordan White, Director of Brand Marketing