Media Relations

What is the program’s mission statement or statement of purpose? Why does the program exist?

University Advancement Mission Statement

University Advancement builds and enhances relationships with alumni and friends, creates awareness of university accomplishments and raises funds to support excellence at Eastern Illinois University.

As part of University Advancement, the Communications, Marketing & Brand Strategies Department provides communications and marketing services to Eastern Illinois University’s academic and administrative offices.  The department also serves as a key member of the university’s enrollment management team. Our role is to tell Eastern’s story to the outside world – including prospective students – and to foster support for the university internally. Communications, Marketing and Brand Strategies supports the university’s identity, reputation and promise to provide an educational opportunity second to none.

How does the program mission align with the university mission?

The program's mission is aligned directly with the university's stated mission of accessibility as well as the stated desire of the university to be known for its excellence.  Without broad knowledge and support of the university we would be neither accessible nor known.  What's more, the department's mission is specifically mentioned as one of the "planks" in the strategic plan.  That plan states "The campus and surrounding communities will take pride in the university’s many accomplishments and in the successes of our students, faculty, staff and alumni. Prospective students will increasingly identify Eastern as their first choice."  That, in short is our mission.

Whom does the program serve?

The department serves the entire university with particular emphasis on undergraduate admissions.  The department also provides significant support for other offices within the division -- particularly alumni services and development.

What are the services provided? How do these services align with the university mission and program mission?

Communications, Marketing and Brand Strategies provides public relations counsel, marketing expertise, assistance with communications vehicles including (but not limited to) social media and design assistance to a broad range of departments within the university.  We also provide extensive support to the recruitment efforts -- particularly at the undergraduate level.

Describe the program’s origins (e.g. year established, purpose, expectations).

The department was originally established to provide media relations support.  Later design services were added followed by advertising and marketing.  As recruitment became more competitive, the department was expected to provide a broader level of marketing support including an increasing array of recruitment materials.

How has the unit changed or adapted over time?

The department has added additional staff and expertise to match the much more competitive environment and the changes in the field.  The department has also recently started adding additional systems to foster better customer service and on-time delivery, to monitor both social media and traditional media and to more effectively communicate with the outside world.  The department is now headed by an assistant vice president who brought specific expertise in public relations, advertising and marketing as well as strategic enrollment management.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the program’s history and relevance to university mission.

Provide data, if available, on the numbers of students, faculty, staff, or others served by the program during the past four years. If no data are available, please estimate the numbers served annually.

We help admissions attract more than 7,800 applicants and more than double that in terms of prospects. This year we are already running 43% ahead of that pace (versus the same time last year.)  Our analytics system shows that we have already reached an audience of 1 1/4 million contacts this quarter.  The most recent online advertising campaign delivered more than 18 million impressions targeting individuals in our key new freshman and transfer prospects.  Those impressions resulted in 6,966 click-throughs for an overall cost per click of $1.16 and a CPM (Cost per thousand) of 37 cents.  With that success, we are expanding into additional outlets including Pandora.

Does the program offer any co-curricular opportunities for students (e.g., internships, RSO support, service-learning activities)? Please describe.

We provide support to a number of RSO's on an as-needed basis and provide an internship in media relations for students in the university's public relations program.

Does the program contribute to the delivery of academic programs (e.g., providing professional expertise, serving as adjunct faculty)? Please describe.

The assistant vice president is currently serving as a member of the adjunct faculty in the journalism department and various members of the department have served as adjunct faculty from time to time.  In addition, several of the staff provide guest lectures in their fields of expertise.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the internal demand for the program. Note any clarifications or special circumstances (e.g., curriculum changes made by another program) that should be considered when reviewing the above data.

Is the program accredited or approved by a recognized external agency or otherwise certified to meet established professional standards? Provide an executive summary of and link to the program’s most recent accreditation or certification report, if available.

N/A

Is the program required to meet any regulatory or legal requirements? Is the program subject to any special auditing requirements?

No

What are the most important outreach or public service activities supported by the program?

The department's outreach into the community (including working with the local media) is specifically designed to foster better relationships with our host communities.  In addition, we regularly provide support and publicity for the service activities of the university and its RSO's.

How do the local community and the region benefit from the program?

The department helps foster understanding of the university's programs and services and provides an opportunity for the local community and the region to become more aware of those programs and services and to become active participants.

If needed, provide supplemental comments or data sources to help the reader understand the external demand for the program.

What are the two or three more important measureable outcomes tracked to assess program quality? Does the program conduct an outcomes assessment, and if so, what has been the impact?

The department has been establishing tracking systems for all of its activities and continues to expand those systems.  Three key measures are:

• On-time delivery of services
• Number of prospects and number of applicants
• Share of voice and volume of coverage

The first measure is a new one and -- by the very act of measuring -- on-time performance has improved.  The result has been better communication with our internal clients, higher customer satisfaction and a better overall reputation within the university.  The most recent challenge is to continue to engage with students after they have been admitted in order to ensure their enrollment.  Our newest modalities including Merit Pages are specifically designed to meet that need and increase post-admissions engagement.

We track the number of prospects along with EnrollmentWorx and that number has climbed steadily in the last year and a half.  This year we are on pace to significantly out-perform last year -- a change which should have a positive impact on enrollments.

The third measure is a new one and will allow us to better track our media relations efforts and adjust for maximum effectiveness.  Share of voice measures more than just the number of clips or amount of coverage about the university.  It also measures the tone of the coverage and compares our "share" of the overall conversation with that given to our competition.

What are the two or three most effective best practices that the program has implemented? What benefits have been gained from implementing these best practices?

The adoption of WorkZone (our project tracking system) and HubSpot (our inbound marketing and analytics system) have significantly increased our responsiveness and our effectiveness.

WorkZone gives us both a way to actively track and manage our projects and a system to effectively communicate with our internal clients. The very fact of active tracking has significantly improved our on-time performance and the communications function has reduced misunderstandings and helped us better understand and meet the needs of our clients.

HubSpot gives us an additional way to attract prospects to us with more effective search engine optimization and also gives us a better way to determine our effectiveness through the use of custom landing pages on our website.

What external recognitions (e.g., awards, accommodations, professional certifications, references in trade publications) have the program and its staff received in the past three years?

We have just recently begun seeking external recognition and -- in our first foray -- have won four awards (two platinum and two gold) awards from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals. 

Entrants in that competition include corporations, advertising agencies and non-profits from throughout the United States and around the world. Winners are selected from over 200 categories in seven forms of media and communication efforts- marketing, publications, marketing/promotion, public service/pro bono, creativity and electronic/interactive.

In 2012, we won a Gold Price of CASE award for the best program case statement from CASE

Also in 2012, we won a silver award from UCDA (University and College Design Association) and a Bronze award from CASE for Excellence in photography.

In 2013, we won two Platinum Awards (one for the University Viewbook and one for the Doudna Program brochure) and two Gold Awards (one for the ACT postcard and one for the website) from the Marketing and Communications Association.  Those MarCom awards came in a national competition.

Is the program active with any regional, national, or international professional organizations?

Members of the department are active members (depending in their exact function in the department) in CASE (The Council for the Advance and Support of Education), UCDA (University and College Design Association) and PRSA (The Public Relations Society of America.)

Note any presentations, publications, or offices held in the last three years.

Patrick M. Early -- current membership chair for Central Illinois Chapter of PRSA

If needed, provide supplemental comments or data sources to help the reader understand the quality of program outcomes.

Note any special benefits (e.g., personnel support, equipment, permanent improvements) that the program has received in the past three years from its grants and other sponsored programs.

N/A

How does the program benefit from donor gifts (e.g., scholarships, endowed chairs)? Does donor support provide a significant percentage of the program’s overall funding?

N/A

List two or three key relationships that the program maintains with external constituencies (e.g., community colleges, other universities, government bodies). How do these relationships advance the university mission or otherwise benefit the university?

The department cooperates with counterparts at community colleges and regularly communicates with local government officials on behalf of the university.  The understanding and cooperation of both of those outside entities is critical to our continued success.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the resources generated by the program. Note any clarifications or special circumstances (e.g., revenue pass-throughs) that should be considered when reviewing the above data.

Provide an executive summary of and link to any metrics or benchmarks that the program tracks to measure productivity.

The department uses several benchmarks.  First and foremost, on the enrollment side, we track the 10th day enrollment figures, the number of admitted students and the number of applicants.  Further, we track the number of prospects (as defined by registration with the MyEIU portal and we track both web queries and contacts, open rates and clickthrough rates of advertising placements and direct mail pieces (both postal mail and electronic).

Working in close conjunction with the admissions office, we helped produce an increase of more than 18 percent in applications.  Now we are turning our attention to yield from that applicant pool looking to combat a significant melt last year.

For publications, we track the number of pieces produced and our on-time delivery rate.  We also track the number of press releases issued, stories posted online and traffic on social media and on the website.

We are just beginning to actively monitor media placements and social media.  In those venues, we look at both the reach of the placement (a/k/a how many people saw it) and the sentiment of the mention.  We are moving toward a "share of voice" measurement which will measure our portion of the overall conversation about our key subjects such as higher education.  In the meantime, we will continue to track advertising equivalency for traditional media placements though we do understand that this is a flawed measure.  It compares a publicity placement directly with the equivalent amount of advertising space purchased in the same publication.  It's primary benefit is that it's fairly easy, but it's not a sophisticated measure by any stretch of the imagination.

What initiatives has the program implemented to enhance staff productivity (e.g., access to training, workflow improvements)? Briefly describe the costs and benefits of these initiatives.

We have re--engineered our workflow around the WorkZone system -- a process that is still underway.  We have seen improvements in both client communications and on-time delivery.  We expect those to continue moving forward.  The cost of the system was less than $10 thousand last year but has significantly improved our on-time performance and is the equivalent of another full-time professional employee.

Typically, we are working on 20 to 30 projects at any one time for departments throughout the university.  Our "to do" list during the heaviest demand seasons typically runs 35 - 40 pages.

The department has budgeted for continuing training for the staff through the year and we are developing continuing education plans for each individual staff member.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the productivity of the program. Note any clarifications or special circumstances (e.g., accreditation requirements, curricular changes, program restructuring) that should be considered when reviewing the above data.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the costs associated with the program. Note any clarifications or special circumstances (e.g., expenditures made centrally or externally, expenditures made on behalf of other units) that should be considered when reviewing the above data.

How does the program seek to distinguish itself from similar programs at other institutions?

The function of Communications, Marketing and Brand Strategies is unique at Eastern Illinois University. We are the one department focused holistically on the external reputation and placement of the university and we are a key partner in the overall enrollment management strategy.  There are other units within the university doing some marketing, but those are either internally focused (like housing and dining) or focused on a subset of our total audience (such athletics or the Doudna Performance Series.)  However, we work together and provide support to those units as well and also are involved in many internal communications issues.

Note any unique and/or essential contributions that the program makes to the university.

We are the key touchpoint for the media and we are specifically charged with helping to market the university to prospective students.

Provide any program-specific metrics that help to document program contributions or program quality. Examples of some commonly used program-specific metrics may be found here.

The metrics are contained above.  In the end, we focus on the delivery of our key messages to our target audiences and use some of the metrics mentioned earlier to help measure our success in that endeavor.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand the program impact on the university mission.

Provide a link to or listing of the program’s goals and/or strategic plan.

We have an integrated marketing communications plan and have implemented it.  In addition, in conjunction with EnrollmentWorx, we have developed a series of additional initiatives which should produce additional enrollments and therefore additional revenues.  However, many of those initiatives will require an investment up front in order to produce the revenue downstream.  Our current advertising budget is miniscule in comparison to the audience we need to reach.  We have used a number of highly cost-effective means to reach our audiences, but we should be making a much larger investment as are some of our direct competitors.  Our sources have told us that several of our competitors have made multi-million dollar investments in both new facilities and in marketing them.  What's more, a general rule of thumb is that the marketing budget should be around 3% of total revenues.  That would make our overall marketing budget more than $6 million.  We realize that's not a realistic goal, but every dollar we invest in marketing the university will have a significant return on investment and help us return to a stable and sustainable enrollment.

What role will the program have in the implementation of the university’s strategic plan (provide link to strategic plan)?

Marketing and communications is one of the major planks in the strategic plan.  Every part of that plank is underway and some have already been completed.  We will continue to push forward with additional efforts and track the return on investment.  Without appropriate marketing and communications support, we would not reach our enrollment goals so our efforts are key to the overall success of the university.

http://www.eiu.edu/strategicsummary/

See plank 6 -- Marketing and Communications

In the next two or three years, what best practices, improvements in operations, or other opportunities to advance the university’s mission are likely to be implemented?

We are already moving forward with more active and effective use of social media, an expanded media relations program and more effective advertising.  We will be continuing to seek additional advertising opportunities as well as targeted communications vehicles to reach our prospective students and bring them to the university.  Additional funding will be needed if we are going to significantly expand our advertising programs -- particularly in urban areas like Chicago.

If needed, provide supplemental comments to help the reader understand future opportunities for the program.