Jan 27th 11 Posted by James Vineburgh

Managing Web Projects: Easier than Herding Cats?

Managing a web redesign project  can be compared to attempting to herd cats! For starters, there are a lot of cats involved: strategists, graphic designers, writers, developers, and managers. At a bare minimum, cats in these roles will be involved in redesigning your web site.  And, that group is only comprised of the agency side. On your end, you have administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and... read more

Nov 29th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

Strategic Creative: How Research Fuels Creative

Note: this is the third in a series of articles & posts on Strategic Creative Marketing  What is the relationship between research and creative? At first glance, the two activities couldn’t seem more unrelated. Market research quantifies the world—or at least your particular marketplace. It interprets your challenges and opportunities through hard numbers, reliable samples, and plus-or-minus... read more

Oct 27th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

Strategic Creative: What Creative Strategy Has to Do Now

Note: this is the second in a series of articles & posts on Strategic Creative Marketing  In the first installment of this series, I talked about the need to stand out in a hyper-crowded, overstimulated media marketplace and how a strong strategic creative approach will make a substantial difference. That creative approach, however, has to take into account the way things have changed in the last... read more

Sep 29th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

Strategic Creative: Why Breakthrough Creative Is More Important Than Ever

Note: This is the first in a series of articles & posts on strategic creative marketing You can hear the noise—you don’t have to try too hard. In an oversaturated, hyperactive, media-driven world, it doesn’t take much effort to pick up the constant flow of news, imagery, advertising, and information constantly streaming by on flat screens, Sirius radio channels, Twitter feeds, iPads, laptops,... read more

Sep 20th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

Drake Advantage: What It Means to Be Courageous

At Stamats, whenever we develop creative concepts for a client, we build them in three categories: “traditional,” “surprising,” and “courageous.” “Traditional” means offering a creative look and approach that will be classical and elegant perhaps, but won’t rock any boats—a look, in other words, that can be found on many college and university recruiting publications, websites,... read more

Sep 9th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

What We Can Learn From Apple

Let’s face it: most of us have Apple envy. They make cool products and have a really cool boss, right? And it must be such a cool place to work because from our P.O.V. they’re doing everything right. At least that’s what Apple wants us to believe. Those of us who work in higher ed—both on staff at agencies and institutions—dream of working in a more creative, forward-thinking environment... read more

Jun 25th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

5 Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media for Graduate Recruiting

Your students need community. Traditional-age undergraduate students are surrounded by a recruiting community; from high school visits to college fairs and campus visits, they find support, reinforcement, and people just like them. For the most part, graduate and adult students are more isolated throughout the recruiting process because of who they are—older, working adults for example—and because... read more

Jun 2nd 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

Facebook’s Community Pages: A Lesser Evil?

Facebook’s new community pages feature has marketers in an uproar. Basically, this new service adds yet another way for colleges and universities (as well as corporations, nonprofits, and other organizations) to have a presence. The problem is that neither institutions nor individuals have any say in the matter. Community pages are built on aggregated public content drawn from user status messages... read more

May 19th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

What Integrated Marketing and Social Media Have in Common

We keep hearing from various self-appointed social media gurus that integrated marketing is dead—a sentiment I strongly disagree with. Not only is integrated marketing still very much alive, but you can make the case that far from being the polar opposites said gurus want us to think they are, social media and integrated marketing have a lot in common and can in fact help each other out. Integrated... read more

May 5th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

Will Authenticity Survive?

What I love about social media—the conversation. What I hate about social media—the conversation. There are those moments when social media has a positive impact on the world—Twitter in Iran—and those moments make me proud. Then there are those moments when social media has a negative impact—obscene blog comments, conference speakers getting slammed on Twitter, high school kids bullying each... read more