Message in a Bottle: University Advertising During Bowl Games

Abstract

Through this descriptive qualitative study of institutional advertisements aired on television during the 2006-2007 college football bowl season, I sought to understand the messages communicated by colleges and universities to external audiences. The findings demonstrate the focus on selling the private benefits of higher education and call into question the effectiveness of university marketing and branding efforts.

Selling college: a longitudinal study of American college football bowl game public service announcements

“…In fact, the University of Alabama (2009) (ranked 75th) noted that their students were 'the best and brightest', a saying coined by Halberstam (1969) to refer to students attending Ivy League institutions. Harris (2009aHarris ( , 2009b spoke about the rewards that accompany quality brands, so perhaps these institutions hoped to garner the same benefits as highly selective schools, even if their rankings did not support that conclusion.…”

“…Previous studies (Clayton, Cavanagh, & Hettche, 2012;Harris, 2009aHarris, , 2009bTobolowsky & Lowery, 2006) have examined the university-produced 30-second advertisements -or 'public service announcements' (PSAs) -that air during college bowl games to better understand how institutions market themselves to viewers and contribute to potential students' college expectations. These advertisements 'provide a unique opportunity [for institutions] to create a scripted message to potentially differentiate the advertised university from the thousands of potential competitors' (Clayton et al, 2012, p. 183).…”

“…These advertisements 'provide a unique opportunity [for institutions] to create a scripted message to potentially differentiate the advertised university from the thousands of potential competitors' (Clayton et al, 2012, p. 183). Harris (2009aHarris ( , 2009b and Clayton et al (2012) studied American college bowl PSAs over a single year, and Tobolowsky and Lowery (2006) studied these commercials for two seasons. But successful brands are 'not built overnight' (Sevier, 2001, p. 86); they grow stronger over time.…”

Beyond the Reengineering of Polytechnics into Technical Universities in Ghana: A Model of Marketing the Offering!

“…Promotion is defined as an institution's ability to communicate with its markets. Promotion of university education has received some degree of attention in the literature (Armstrong & Lumsden, 1999;Harris, 2009). Palmer (2001) breaks down promotion into four distinct elements: advertising, sales promotion, public relations and personal selling.…”

Üniversiteler Ne Vaat Ediyor? Türkiye’deki Üniversitelerin Basın İlanları Üzerine Bir İçerik Analizi

“…Üniversite reklamları üzerine yakın zamanda Türki-ye dışında yapılmış içerik analizi çalışmaları (Harris, 2009;Clayton vd., 2012) bu araştırmanın bulgularıy-la karşılaştırıldığında reklamlarda benzer unsurların kullanıldığı, fakat dikkat çeken ya da başka deyişle ön plana çıkarılan unsurların farklı olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmaktadır. Bu araştırmada en çok dikkat çeken mesaj olan iş, istihdam ve kariyer vaatleri ile uluslararası olanakların, diğer çalışmalarda bu yoğunlukta olmasa da "hayallere ulaştırma (Harris, 2009, s.293)" ya da "uluslararası erişim (Clayton vd., 2012)" gibi yaklaşımlarla yer aldığı söylenebilir.…”