UM-Flint University Relations

There’s a line from Basement Song by the Adam Ezra Group that’s echoing in my head: The conflict that will arise do I choose to concentrate on all the things I love or try to fix the things I hate? I love that lyric for the simple reason that  it’s a shared experience we all […]

As a new homemaker in the early 1990s, I just had to have one of the hot appliances of the times:  the automatic breadmaker.  Panasonic produced the most popular version of this insta-bread making wonder.  All you

This month, UR spent a good deal of time and made a great deal of headway on our largest and most important ongoing project: the redesign of the UM-Flint website. For those faculty and staff members charged with maintaining their department’s website, the most eagerly anticipated aspect of the redesign process may well be the […]

It’s summertime and for the creative team that means working diligently on projects for the upcoming recruitment season for both undergraduate and graduate admissions. We have been working hard on designing a new look for our Graduate Admissions brochure series. This includes repackaging content and finding noteworthy talking points about each program. Using meaningful, thought-out […]

I did it again. In a meeting, I used an example from the 1980s to illustrate a point.  This time, it was the Talking Heads’ David Byrne who wore a really big suit in the video for the song, “Girlfriend is Better.” Blank stares from all the twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings in the room.  What is […]

One of the most important – and most difficult – tasks of any advertising, marketing, branding, or messaging effort is identifying and executing ways to communicate complex ideas as simply and immediately as possible. The tools and vehicles through which this is accomplished depend on the audience, and the best medium to reach that audience. […]

Month Requested Completed Cancelled % for Completions # of Departments April, 2010 23 18 1 78% 10 April was a month filled with new identities for various areas at UM-Flint. The UM-Flint catalog received a new and refreshed look, designed by our newest temporary staff member, Joyce ElHayek. Joyce just graduated with her Fine Arts […]

A logo designer can choose the perfect typeface and construct the perfect logo.  A marketer can evangelize and promote a product or service.  Yet all of these things are irrelevant until the consumer or end-user experiences the product or service.  It is the job of a marketing professional to sell, it’s a user experience professional’s job to make sure that the […]

This is the time of year when University Relations and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions concentrate on developing and fine-tuning the communication strategy and tools for the coming year’s recruitment push. This month, we immersed ourselves in the process of improving one of the more successful communication pieces from last year’s record-setting recruitment cycle: the […]

Last month I mentioned exploring the possibility of Google TV ads. Since the beginning of April, I have been trying to win a Google TV ad bid! As I work my way through this process, I’m discovering that actually winning a bid to broadcast a TV commercial is harder than the “how to” video states. […]