The One World, One UC Davis campaign was launched in the fall of 2013. Advertising for the campaign has cost $81,249, according to Associate Chancellor for Strategic Communications, Luanne Lawrence.
The One World, One UC Davis campaign, which focuses on featuring exceptional UC Davis faculty, students and donors and their stories, seeks to improve the general public’s awareness of the University.
The ultimate goal of the campaign is to improve the University by attracting more donors and even greater talent. It is also intended to distinguish UC Davis from other University of California (UC) campuses.
So far, the money has been spent on outdoor banners, promotional items, launch advertising and IT retrographics. Over half of it, approximately $53,000, has gone to television spot production, T-shirts and giveaway items, according to Lawrence.
“We [members of the UC Davis community] know that UC Davis is very well-known and recognized for its agricultural, veterinary and biological sciences programs,” Lawrence said. “But from surveys, we’ve learned that the general public doesn’t really distinguish between the UCs.”
ASUCD Senator Pamela Nonga, who was featured in a One World, One UC Davis campaign video, agreed that all of the UCs can blend together in the view of the public.
“Even when I was applying to colleges and looking at the different UCs, UC Davis didn’t stand out to me as much as the other ones,” Nonga said. “We need to work on getting ourselves out there and advocating for ourselves.”
When asked whether the campaign is a good use of University funding, Shaun Keister, vice chancellor of alumni relations, said that he believes that it is the best way to expose “the best kept secret out there.”
“When you look at all of the things that matter the most to society — water, food, health, the environment, the arts — there are very few universities in the world that can match the caliber of programs and people we have at UC Davis,” Keister said. “Prior to this campaign, we didn’t champion this enough.”
A large part of the campaign involves sharing the stories of people in the University. Banners are currently in place around campus that highlight specific students and their achievements, and their full stories can be read on the campaign’s website. These highlights are not limited to students. The achievements of faculty and donors are also being displayed.
The Campaign for UC Davis, which was launched in 2010, had a goal to raise $1 billion in funds for the University from more than 100,000 donors. The goal was reached in November 2013, a year ahead of the projected fundraising schedule. In late January, One World, One UC Davis will tell the stories of 100 of the donors.
“Our goal is to thank the 100,000 plus donors who helped UC Davis reach the goals of its first comprehensive fundraising campaign … and to show the world at large the face of philanthropy at UC Davis,” Keister said.
The 2020 Initiative, which seeks to add 5,000 undergraduate students and approximately 300 faculty members to the UC Davis community by 2020, should be aided by this marketing of the University, according to Sarah Colwell, the senior manager of communications for development and alumni relations.
“One of the main goals of the 2020 initiative is to grow the faculty. The One Campaign wants to show prospective faculty members why they should want to come work with UC Davis,” Lawrence said.
According to Colwell, UC Davis also has opportunities for expansion that other UCs don’t.
“UC Davis has the largest geographical footprint of the UCs. It’s not like UC Berkeley where they’re surrounded by a major city, we have room to grow and expand,” Colwell said.
Nonga said that she was happy that the funds being used in the campaign didn’t come from raising student fees.
“I’m glad that they were able to find another avenue of funding. Hopefully, whatever kind of visibility that UC Davis gets from this campaign will make it a worthy investment in the long run,” Nonga said.
In June, the One campaign will be expanded outside of the UC Davis campus and will move into the state of California as a whole, according to Lawrence. The campaign will start to appear in all of the admissions materials, and a large part of the project involves connecting alumni with the campus.
“We’re creating an alumni portal on the One website of alumni and student events in specific areas,” Lawrence said.
The One World, One UC Davis campaign is the first UC Davis streamlined marketing campaign which includes all parts of the University. Programs such as the UC Davis Nursing School, which is located across the causeway in Sacramento, often have different marketing strategies than the base UC Davis campus, but the One campaign wants to integrate everything that makes up UC Davis.
“The best part of the campaign so far has been working with the students, because they’ve never had a platform this big to tell their stories or to celebrate their achievements,” Lawrence said.
