Communications and Marketing, spring 2022

All arms of the Division of Communications and Marketing worked at full speed during the first quarter. With the mandated need for students to have booster shots prior to the spring semester, supporting the move-in process for on-campus students required myriad communications to residential students, parents and the campus. Additional communications were sent to students living off-campus to ensure they were aware of the booster requirement before they arrived on campus for their first class.

The division continues to place Featured in BingUNews stories in each Dateline and B-Line, as well as send stories to a nearly 7,000-person email list each Saturday morning, and to all parents and alumni once a month. The most recent Saturday morning distribution had an open rate of 78.8%.

Both the media/public relations and creative services arms of the division played a key role in preparing for the April 9 launch of the University’s third comprehensive gifts campaign, which will be held both in person and virtually. The campaign materials produced included several videos and a great deal of graphics/content for the web.

Creative Services

In addition to working for the comprehensive gifts campaign that involved both web, print and design work, Creative Services worked on the Slate portal, reviewing the undergraduate application, developed an undergraduate/graduate landing page and provided support for ongoing online advertisements, worked on undergraduate/graduate recruitment email development and support, and maintained the health of binghamton.edu by reviewing/updating broken links, meta data, spelling and grammar; providing OU account training, account creation and account deletion; and handling requests from campus partners.

On the print side, again in addition to campaign materials, Creative Services completed the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences magazine and the Innovation magazine.

Enrollment marketing efforts

Yield marketing efforts

Admissions continues to release decisions and C&M supports all yield efforts which include:

• Honors programs: FRI, Source, PwC, University Scholars and Innovation Scholars. This year, a second SOM honors program was added called the EY Student Leaders Program. The communications included a mailed invitation from the president and a packet; a landing page with general info about the program and how to enroll; and several emails (follow ups from program directions, current-student emails, etc.).
• Receptions for admitted students and their families – email invites for these OOS events.
• Admitted Student Days – C&M designed the electronic invites, conducted digital campaigns to promote these events which will take place April 3 and April 23.
• Virtual events began at the end of March and continue almost every day during April.

Prospective student events

The high-school junior and sophomore communication streams continue with monthly emails sent to these cohorts as well as a whole host of virtual events.

A new presentation was created for Admissions to use for campus visits. This new one highlights student voices more than in previous info sessions and the presentation has been made shorter to allow families to go out on tour sooner.

International recruitment efforts

There was a push this quarter in our support for the Admissions international team. We wrote two long-form brand-awareness articles for WeChat (translated into Chinese) and we continue to propose topics and post weekly to WeChat.

Social media

The Undergraduate Admissions Instagram and Facebook accounts both saw a gain in followers this quarter (Facebook: +3%, Instagram: +2%). The pages have been sharing a variety of content about Binghamton’s academic offerings, clubs, life on campus and facility updates to appeal to admitted students who are deciding on enrolling. For the next quarter, we will be creating a National College Decision Day campaign geared around the May 1 enrollment deadline and will be holding giveaways in partnership with the Bookstore and Dining Services.

Media and Public Relations

Binghamton University faculty made a major impact in the media for their research and expertise, landing hits in leading publications such as The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Prevention and many others. From discussing the effects of sugar on the brain, to using drone technology to locate orphaned gas and oil wells, our faculty helped to bring Binghamton University into the spotlight and showcased their expertise and the quality of research taking place at the University.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day and connect with our alumni, we put together our annual blog highlighting couples who met during their time at Binghamton. We put out a call on social media and received many responses, culminating in the publication of “32 Love Stories from Binghamton University Alumni.” The blog saw heavy traffic and was well-received on social media, resulting in many other couples sharing their love stories.

The University celebrated Black History Month by highlighting individuals and offices across campus that are making an impact on the University and beyond, from the Harriet Tubman Center for Freedom and Equity to Binghamton sophomore Galileo Savage, who was selected to serve in the inaugural cohort of SUNY EOP student ambassadors. The social media stories allowed us to highlight great people and programs, and to further the University’s mission to foster a diverse and inclusive campus.

The University launched a new video series called “Binghamton Faculty Focus” to highlight our diverse faculty and their specific areas of research. To date, these videos have highlighted the work of William Eggleston, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, whose work focuses on opioid use disorder; and Ning Zhou, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, whose primary research focus is developing ways to increase situational awareness for power grid operators.

National news coverage

Total circulation in numbers: 566,129,500

Binghamton in the News

• Lina Begdache, assistant professor of health and wellness studies, was featured by The Conversation, Prevention, Yahoo!.com, The Hour and other news outlets for her insight into how caffeine and sugar affect the brain. Total circulation: Over 235 million.
• Steven Jay Lynn, distinguished professor of psychology, was featured in Yahoo!.com, Huffington Post, the Associated Press and various other news outlets, discussing how a ‘mass psychosis’ theory is being used to dismiss COVID precautions. Total circulation: Over 192 million.
• Adam Laats, professor of education, was featured by various news outlets, where he discussed several topics related to education. Total circulation: Over 129.4 million.
• The Washington Post, Newsday, History News Network: In an article about how leaders may try to blame teachers for pandemic school problems, but how only addressing long-standing structural problems will solve today’s challenges.
• YahooNews!.com and various other news outlets: Civics, charters, and classical ed: What to know about Hillsdale College’s K-12 efforts in Tennessee.
• David Campbell, associate professor of public administration, and colleagues, were featured in The Hour, Yahoo!.com, The Conversation and other various news outlets, where they discussed how the 50 biggest donors gave or pledged nearly $28 billion in 2021. Total circulation: Over 127 million.
• Suzanne McLeod, assistant professor; and Larry Dake, adjunct professor for educational leadership; were featured in Yahoo!.com, The Hour, The Conversation, where they discussed how school districts across the U.S. are starting to pay subs more and make it easier to become a sub, in an effort to keep classrooms operating. Total circulation: Over 103.2 million.
• Sal Agnihothri, professor of supply chain and business analytics, School of Management, was featured on The Academic Minute, where he discussed harnessing the power of healthcare apps through provider integration. Total circulation: Over 1 million.
• Timothy de Smet, director of the Geophysics and Remote Sensing Laboratory and environmental visualization research assistant professor, and Alex Nikulin, assistant professor of geological sciences and environmental studies, were featured in Sierra Magazine, where they discussed using drone technology to locate orphaned oil and gas wells. Total circulation: Over 693 thousand.
• Cynthia Maupin, assistant professor of organizational behavior and leadership, School of Management, was featured in The Academic Minute, where she discussed how friendliness and trustworthiness matters when forming new teams. Total circulation: Over 116.5 thousand.