 "Photo: Provided Photo")
Travelers on Chicago bus routes could soon be enticed to extend their journeys to Carbondale.
Bus shelter ads are a part of a new comprehensive effort to market SIUC with commercials, billboards, MySpace advertisements, and other methods.
Prior to last March, SIUC had no money or manpower devoted to advertising, said Mike Trude, advertising manager for Barking Dawg Productions.
Barking Dawg is an organization of students and alumni working to promote SIUC.
"We have been put in charge to market the university to try to increase enrollment, upgrade the image, and put SIU back on the map in specific areas - Chicago, St. Louis, the Metro East, southern Illinois," Trude said.
Trude said Barking Dawg has created two 30-second commercials to air on Comcast, Charter Communications and Mediacom. In order to reach the 15- to 19-year-old demographic, Trude said the commercials would appear on channels such as MTV, Vh1, and E! Entertainment.
Another component of Barking Dawg's strategy is Video on Demand, an interactive television system that allows users to select and watch video content. Trude said Comcast, Mediacom, and Charter Communications customers would be able to view SIUC promotional videos.
Additionally, 35 ads will appear in bus shelters around Chicago, and a series of billboards is planned for the southern Illinois area.
Budget constraints present a serious problem for marketers at the university, said Terry Clark, chair of marketing at SIUC and director of Barking Dawg. He said the university's marketing budget, after buying equipment, was about $300,000.
"John A. Logan has a budget - we've heard - of $200,000 for southern Illinois. We're not complaining - we're crashing ahead cheerfully," Clark said. "But the rule of thumb is two to three percent of a university's operating budget is devoted to institutional-level marketing."
Stephanie Sparks, who manages Web content for Barking Dawg, said the organization was unique because its members all received education from SIUC but come from different backgrounds.
"We have people who do our video editing, pre-production, post-production; we have sound technicians; we have graphic designers; we have public relations people. We really try covering all our bases," said Sparks, a graduate student studying speech communication.
While the university takes steps to market itself, individual colleges may begin similar initiatives.
The College of Business and Administration hired its first full-time marketing officer, Sun Min, six months ago. Since that time, the college has redesigned its Web site and created a promotional video, which had received nearly 1,800 views on YouTube as of Monday night.
"I think we can all agree as a university and as a college that we haven't adequately marketed our school," Min said. "We understand that students nowadays - young people especially - are on YouTube every day. We wanted to bring the message to them."
Clark said SIUC is a brilliant place that is often overlooked because of its party school image.
"We've got greatness all across this university. We've got one of the prettiest campuses. We've got professors who are world-famous, we've got students who are world class, and the world has never heard," Clark said. "We want the world to understand what a fabulous place this is."
Daily Egyptian Reporter Allison Petty can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 259 or apetty@siu.edu.
