And Why Doesn't North Texas Advertise?

[UNTLifer]

Houston Chronicle Article

"In a mobile town like Houston, a good way to reach people is through billboards," said Laura Hubbard, director of marketing at Rice's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management. The school has used billboards around town since 2005, she said. In other markets, it advertises primarily online and through other media.

"Houston is still, for good or bad, the billboard capital," said Wendy Adair, vice president of university advancement at TSU. "We all travel by car, and we all get stuck on freeways. It's a great way to get the message out."

Both TSU and UH have new presidents and are beginning new fundraising campaigns. That's considered a good time to launch a billboard campaign, said Ken DeDominicis, a vice president at the University of St. Thomas, which ran its own billboard campaign from 2001 to 2005.

Remove the word Houston from the quote above and insert The Metroplex. Why in the world does NT continue to not utilize this type of advertising, whether it be for academics or athletics?

Edited July 8, 2008 by UNTLifer

[DirtySavage]

They definately should. There is no reason not to and the other schools in the metro are pushing harder than us in advertising right now.

[Charlie NT 73]

Renting bill board space, locations, and size of the bill board is very expensive.

Plane jane bill boards around high traffic areas like I35E, 635 exchange can

cost $5000 per month or more.

[Boomer23]

Honestly, why should we push advertising so hard if we constantly have one of the largest incoming classes year after year?

I know we need to build a better reputation but why blow money on billboards when we can't even get enough for a stadium and other building projects.

Seems the money is probably being used for other projects going on right now.

Sure more students means more money, but honestly right now I don't know if advertising is essential.

[Eagle1855]

Rice has a billboard (I think it's on I-10) that touts their athletics saying something about not only having excellence in the classroom with a picture of Dillard and a few other athletes. I've noticed UH and TSU's billboards around town (though Im not overly impressed with any of them). UTA's got one in the Woodlands on I-45.

I have mixed opinions on the use of billboards to promote a university in their own market. If UNT wants to get in the billboard biz, they ought to put them up in Austin and Houston where the brand recognition is noticeably lower.

[drex]

We had a billboard for a number of years in the late 80's and early 90's. It was sponsored by First State Bank and the athletic department. We each paid half. It was only intended to establish market presence. It was located just as you crossed the bridge in Lewisville headed to Denton. Its effectiveness is undetermined. We liked the idea of having a market presence, however. Billboards could easily be done by co-oping with existing business who use billboards. This, of course, would require work by the promotions department of the athletic department and/or the university. Are they willing? Who knows.

[UNTX]

On the way to Austin this past weekend I saw billboards along I-35 for Texas State, two for UTA, and even one for Midwestern State.

[Quoner]

On the way to Austin this past weekend I saw billboards along I-35 for Texas State, two for UTA, and even one for Midwestern State.

Which one did you decide to enroll in or give money to? I mean - that's a lot of billboards!

[meangreendork]

Academic-based billboards: We have plenty of incoming freshmen, so we don't need to aim at them. Grad students and such, yes we should probably aim out for that, but billboards are SUPER MEGA expensive, and that's just for the billboard space for a short run of time, for 1 board. You'd want multiple boards for longer spans of time to get the highest amount of impressions possible.

Athletics-based billboards: Unfortunately, most people in the public don't care about your athletics if your football team doesn't win. So until then, I'd wait for the team to win before I try to sell a "bad product".

[Eagle1855]

Which one did you decide to enroll in or give money to? I mean - that's a lot of billboards!

bwahahaha. point taken!

[hickoryhouse]

I drove up from Austin yesterday and in Belton Tx, I think, a town about twenty miles south of Waco there were several billboards touting the greatness that is Baylor Bear Football!

[foutsrouts]

Academic-based billboards: We have plenty of incoming freshmen, so we don't need to aim at them. Grad students and such, yes we should probably aim out for that, but billboards are SUPER MEGA expensive, and that's just for the billboard space for a short run of time, for 1 board. You'd want multiple boards for longer spans of time to get the highest amount of impressions possible.

Athletics-based billboards: Unfortunately, most people in the public don't care about your athletics if your football team doesn't win. So until then, I'd wait for the team to win before I try to sell a "bad product".

I don't know what our graduate school (MBA) capacity is running at these days, but with the price of tuition, all we would have to do is pull in a couple of new quality students each month to justify the cost. I like the idea if the boards are done nicely, and I think it's about time that we SERIOUSLY make an attempt at entering the competitive MBA market. Too many other schools are pulling ahead of us in that area.

[ADLER]

How about this for advertising?

[UNTLifer]

Honestly, why should we push advertising so hard if we constantly have one of the largest incoming classes year after year?

I know we need to build a better reputation but why blow money on billboards when we can't even get enough for a stadium and other building projects.

Seems the money is probably being used for other projects going on right now.

Sure more students means more money, but honestly right now I don't know if advertising is essential.

As drex stated, it is about establishing market presence, and it doesn't have to be about academics. It could have the football schedule, push to sell season tickets, promote all of athletics, joing the Mean Green Club, etc...

[trud1966]

We had a billboard for a number of years in the late 80's and early 90's. It was sponsored by First State Bank and the athletic department. We each paid half. It was only intended to establish market presence. It was located just as you crossed the bridge in Lewisville headed to Denton. Its effectiveness is undetermined. We liked the idea of having a market presence, however. Billboards could easily be done by co-oping with existing business who use billboards. This, of course, would require work by the promotions department of the athletic department and/or the university. Are they willing? Who knows.

HOld the phone, didnt we advertise last year with a billboard that showed X's & 0's and the slogan "UNT Football, it's WIDE OPEN!"????? That was on 35 somewhere wasnt it?

[stebo]

I could see a billboard advertising the home schedule for season tickets but that would have to be after a good season (to capitalize on the momentum). BTW, there are UNT-Dallas billboards all over the place. There is one out on Spur 408 that has a guy on it that looks like Obama... I doubt it is him but it sure looks like him when you are driving by at 55 or so.

[UNTFan23]

HOld the phone, didnt we advertise last year with a billboard that showed X's & 0's and the slogan "UNT Football, it's WIDE OPEN!"????? That was on 35 somewhere wasnt it?

It was on the back of Fouts Field.

[emmitt01]

This is like clockwork. The billboard question means we're just about at Fall practice.

[UNTLifer]

This is like clockwork. The billboard question means we're just about at Fall practice.

I just threw it out there after reading the article on UofH, TX Southern and Rice in the Houston Chronicle. Everyone usually talks about the expense, but if TSU and UNT-Dallas can afford it, why can't we? We need better market precense.

[Quoner]

I just threw it out there after reading the article on UofH, TX Southern and Rice in the Houston Chronicle. Everyone usually talks about the expense, but if TSU and UNT-Dallas can afford it, why can't we? We need better market precense.

I'm not questioning the money - I'm questioning the effectiveness. I could get a TY Sports blog billboard ordered tomorrow but would anyone give a crap? Next time you drive along I-35 or I-45, count how many empty billboards you see.

[Cerebus]

I'm not questioning the money - I'm questioning the effectiveness. I could get a TY Sports blog billboard ordered tomorrow but would anyone give a crap? Next time you drive along I-35 or I-45, count how many empty billboards you see.

We can get a billboard along I-20 for $200 a month... In Odessa.

Whose with me!?!

[Quoner]

We can get a billboard along I-20 for $200 a month... In Odessa.

Whose with me!?!

You could do season tickets, a mean green club donation and a freaking billboard for less than the required seat donations at Texas and A&M. What a steal!

[forevereagle]

I'm not questioning the money - I'm questioning the effectiveness. I could get a TY Sports blog billboard ordered tomorrow but would anyone give a crap? Next time you drive along I-35 or I-45, count how many empty billboards you see.

That is the heart of the issue. There is a lot of debate on the effectiveness of advertising these days. Advertising is in every aspect of our lives, and we have been conditioned to ignore it. Do billboards make it through the clutter of advertising and actually have an impact? I drive down 635 every day, and I cannot tell you one product that is advertised on any of the billboards I pass. I just don't think that, as an advertising medium, billboards are that effective. Besides the mentioned univesity billboards that were already mentioned (which, by the way, I would venture that people on this forum are only remembering because they said to themselves, "Selves, why can't MY school do that?"), how many ads can you actually remember from your day of driving with the radio on past signs for retailers, billboards, bus signs, tractor trailers, cars, and so on? What ads do you remember from watching TV and surfing the net? In order for advertising to truly be effective, it needs to cut through the clutter of the sea of advertising. Honestly, if you can't do it well enough to get noticed, then it is probably best not to waste the time and money it takes to put an ad out there.

For example, the much maligned SMU pony up campaign was largely ineffective from what I can tell. I work not far from SMU and saw the banners and ads every day. I spoke with some of my coworkers, and they hadn't even noticed them. The few that had didn't know what they were about. They spent a lot of money, and I don't think that they got much from it. The only people who noticed seemed to already have a strong opinion either way.

Before we go and want our school to spend a bunch of money on these kinds of things, we should consider what we could be wasting in terms of capital.

Edited July 9, 2008 by forevereagle

[Quoner]

Before we go and want our school to spend a bunch of money on these kinds of things, we should consider what we could be wasting in terms of capital.

You make great points - but rather than discuss them, let's think of cool slogans for our new $200 billboard near Odessa!

Who wants to go first?

[greenminer]

Forget about advertising. This is about marking our territory.