Work Samples Prepared for:

SITUATION

There are few universities in the world that have the gravitas of UCLA. Globally recognized, highly sought-after, and one of the most applied to schools in the country. Yet, in the broader community, there are still a lot of misconceptions out there about who and what UCLA actually is and what it stands for. As the institution approaches its centennial anniversary in 2019, the leadership team recognized this was the perfect moment to clarify UCLA’s narrative for all audiences, drive key revenue generators across the institution—such as advancement, enrollment, athletics, and more—and lay the groundwork for the institution’s most ambitious fundraising effort to-date.

SOLUTION

160over90 was tasked to create an overarching institutional brand that would shape perception in the community and beyond, and also to translate that brand narrative for the centennial comprehensive campaign. The vehicle we found to deliver this message came from an in-depth discovery process. From the moment we stepped on UCLA’s campus we felt an overwhelming sense of optimism. Just about every student, faculty and staff member we met projected an air of informed, inclusive, positive enthusiasm. They not only knew they could make a difference, they were absolutely certain that they would. This unique, powerful, inspiring anomaly became the through line of the brand we built. The brand platform then translated to the campaign by drawing on the UC System’s motto, “Let There be Light,” while leaving the phrase open-ended to create a flexible device that could serve every area and cause across the entire institution. The Let There Be campaign launched in 2014 and has since surpassed its $4.2M goal 18 months ahead of schedule.

UCLA has capable and robust in-house teams of communicators across advancement, communications, and enrollment. From the start of this process, this relationship has been more than a collaboration. It’s been a shared journey of uncovering the institution’s essence, articulating and coauthoring a resonant campaign narrative, and co-creating the massive body of work that moved this campaign—this entire institution—forward to UCLA’s centennial anniversary, and beyond.

RESULTS

During our partnership, UCLA has achieved the following results:

• Increase to #18 in U.S. News & World Report Rankings

• Recognized as the #1 Public University by U.S. News & World Report

• Admissions increased by 36%

• Total applications in 2017 were 113,000

• First-generation applications increased by 9%

CHALLENGE

Take the largest shoe and apparel sponsorship in college sports history and launch it in a big way.

SOLUTION

160over90 orchestrated a Venice Beach takeover for a full day celebrating Under Armour innovation, UCLA athletics, and the eclectic culture of the location. The iconic basketball courts were transformed to recreate the feel of UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, where we hosted the UCLA men’s and women’s basketball teams, a 3-on-3 Battle of the Boardwalk tournament, a performance by WME client Ty Dolla $ign, a free yoga session on the court, live graffiti art, and Under Armour retail shops.

RESULTS

Under Armour drew cross-cultural media attention and LA area influencers drove awareness, with millions of impressions.

Situation

The nation’s first public university, the University of Virginia (“UVA”) has played an integral role in the evolution of public education in the United States. Thomas Jefferson architected a new model for higher education, and the Academical Village—designed to create cross- disciplinary exchange—was positioned at the center of it all. For more than 200 years since, UVA has fulfilled its cinematic origin story as a heavy-hitting research institution, consistently ranked among the top publics, with 11 prestigious schools, a comprehensive health system, and top athletics programs. But the legend of Jefferson and UVA’s museum- like traditions were overpowering critical stories of ingenuity and innovation, compromising relevancy. So in 2014, in the lead-up to the launch of its Bicentennial Commemoration and its largest-ever comprehensive campaign, UVA engaged 160over90 to redefine, reanimate, and future-proof UVA’s brand platform and narrative.

Solution

To combat UVA’s historical reliance but honor its great legacy, 160over90 adjusted the narrative from Jefferson himself to the timeless ideals he espoused. The resulting brand platform, Living Idealism, draws on the past while always looking to the future, reflecting the endless pursuits of the community and demonstrating a continued commitment to excellence, ingenuity, and leadership throughout UVA’s third century.

Themes of collaboration, experimentation, and constant evolution were explored via print, digital, TV, radio, social, and high-visibility out-of-home placements. We’ve worked to reposition the incredibly iconic Rotunda from a ‘monument’ to a bulldozer, honoring UVA’s radical ways of thinking about what sits at the center of an educational experience. We’ve reimagined the President’s Report as Illimitable, a biannual editorial publication showcasing the best of UVA’s pursuits, relaunching it as a rich media online magazine.

And through a diligent process of engaging all corners of the community and equipping more than 1,600 communicators with proper marketing tools and assets—we’ve built a creative and cohesive storytelling ecosystem at UVA that aligned the overarching institution, schools, health system, athletics, admissions, advancement, and individual sub-brands/business units.

Results

In six years’ time, we’ve built more than a brand identity for UVA—we’ve created a dynamic ecosystem that reflects the true diversity, shared energy, and bold mission of one of the nation’s great universities.

We’ve increased the institution’s visibility and perception within the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the national landscape. An awareness campaign yielded more than 22 million impressions, resulting in the most successful video in school history and an 87% lift in unique site visits. A new subscription campaign for the news platform increased reach by 85% and generated 40,000+ subscribers. And a realignment of social properties grew total followers by nearly 40% in just the first year.

We’ve helped UVA achieve an historic high in quality applications and student diversity, growing undergraduate applications by 27%; increasing first- generation and minority applicants by more than 25% and 11%, respectively; and securing the largest number of early-action applications in UVA’s history, while also improving average SAT scores by more than 60 points.

And as a testament to internal adoption and brand alignment, in 2017 UVA was recognized by the American Marketing Association as the Higher Education Marketing Team of the Year.

Situation

Texas A&M University is a fearless front. A community, standing arm in arm, ready for anything. Steeped in history, pride, and reverence, yet fueled by diverse backgrounds, talents, and search for excellence and truth. As a world-class institution, the university seeks to combine knowledge, research, and innovation to create solutions to far-reaching challenges that few institutions have the depth and breadth to achieve.

Together, Texas A&M’s top leaders and faculty members identified key areas in which the university has the proven expertise and creativity in research and teaching to take on society’s most critical problems and look fearlessly ahead at those yet to come. From now through 2020, former students and friends are uniting with faculty and staff in the Lead by Example campaign to enhance Texas A&M’s ability to tackle real-world problems. Such a transformational endeavor requires considerable resources that Texas A&M understood are neither present today, nor likely to become available from public funding sources. Only with private support will Texas A&M take its place among tomorrow’s most prestigious universities.

Solution

In the fall of 2015, Texas A&M was readying to break precedent in Texas and launch a $4 billion campaign. At the same time, the campus welcomed a new administration—both a university president and a foundation president—who inherited the campaign and were charged with rolling it out to stakeholders first across the university, and then across the country. Coupled with a thinly staffed communications team, the mobilization of this ambitious campaign posed a serious challenge.

160over90 was tasked with developing a singular brand voice for the institution to elevate the recognition of the university’s academic and research excellence, secure increased private funding, and strengthen state and federal resources focused on educational and research needs. The new brand platform we helped launch enhanced the perception of Texas A&M as one of the best and most dynamic universities in the world: a single progressive force on the leading edge of it all. As a result, the institution’s new positioning engaged multiple constituents with diverse (and sometimes conflicting) perspectives in a consistent, yet meaningful manner.

Results

The new brand platform served to realign Texas A&M at the overarching level, including a new omni-channel marketing campaign that launched in epic fashion just six months after the new president arrived. The comprehensive campaign included print, digital, TV/video, social media, and web initiatives, and gained the following results:

• Campaign:
  Raised $3.87B to-date
  More than 194K donors
  834K gifts
  Overall: 49MM total campaign impressions
  PSA: 4.9MM views
  Digital Ads:
  17MM digital ad impressions
  Impact video unit had high CTR of 4.41%
  Display ads on The Chronicle of Higher Education (+50%), Forbes (+30%), and The Atlantic (+43%) performed well above CTR benchmark
  Print: “Ripped from the headlines” print ads impacted more than 12+ publications nationally with 4.6MM impressions thus far
  OOH: By leveraging markets with the biggest Aggie alumni networks, OOH placements gained extra traction on social media (in addition to 14.7MM impressions)

• Social Media:
  15K shares of PSA
  Posts featuring the :30 Fearless on Every Front video achieved .56% CTR on Facebook and .47% CTR on Twitter
  3.8% CTR for paid social

160over90 was tasked with developing a singular brand voice for Texas A&M University to elevate the recognition of the institution’s academic and research excellence, secure increased private funding, and strengthen state and federal resources focused on educational and research needs. The Fearless on Every Front brand enhances perception of Texas A&M as one of the best and most dynamic universities in the world: a single progressive force on the leading edge of it all. 160over90 developed a microsite to support the university’s $4.0 billion capital campaign, which houses unique institutional stories, displays video assets, and fosters social media interaction.

Situation

In a city obsessed with sports, Philadelphia has a deep passion for their Eagles. But back in 2012, after two disappointing seasons and tremendous change in the front office and coaching staff, fans felt disconnected from their team. The Eagles partnered with 160over90 to develop a brand strategy that could better reflect the team and reconnect fans with the City of Brotherly Love—in essence, that Philadelphia fueled the Eagles and the Eagles fueled Philadelphia. The brand narrative was designed to build season-to-season—rather than change direction with the seasonal tagline-driven campaigns typical of professional teams.

After seven seasons working with the Eagles, and a Super Bowl win under our belts, we needed to evolve the brand strategy and narrative to appropriately capture and express the new, progressive spirit of the Eagles to core fans and partners.

Solution

As such, going into the 2019/2020 season, we updated the brand strategy around a platform idea of “United We Win.” The Eagles are inextricably linked to Philadelphia, but no longer just by geography. The Eagles’ tie to the City is defined by a mindset built off a connection to a team and organization that brings millions of people together through a unified shared passion. In other words: This is bigger than football, the Eagles are out to win in all that they do.

Our new brand strategy manifested in the “Let’s Fly” campaign for the 2019/2020 season, which spanned video, advertising, OOH, social, and digital. From a creative perspective, we enhanced the team’s color palette by introducing energy green as a new visual element across our branding efforts.

160over90 worked with the Eagles to extend the brand’s reach to engage and energize current and new fans across the country (and the world), enhance the brand narrative to shine a light on the ideals and innovation of the Eagles enterprise, and to attract more premier, regional, and national partners to the team.

Results

This year’s video had over 2.5M views and ran on regional broadcasts throughout Philadelphia and other local markets. The video was also tweeted by influencers such as Mike Trout and Kobe Bryant.

CHALLENGE

College football supposedly has one of the most diehard fanbases in the country, we decided to test that with the ultimate challenge: live atop a billboard for 13 days and you could attend the National Championship as a VIP. The catch? You only stay for as long as your team plays. ​

SOLUTION ​

We converted a billboard into a home as four fans, representing the four semifinal teams, tested their devotion by living 50ft in the air on a billboard in downtown San Jose. But the biggest challenge of all wasn’t for the fans,  it was for 160over90.  Not only did we have to conquer the task of constructing a billboard that people could actually live on for weeks, we also had to make it entertaining for a livestream. Surprise appearances by players and commentators brightened the super fan’s spirits, while challenges including a Wing eating contest led by Joey Chestnut, earned them living upgrades. ​

RESULT ​

Outlets like Good Morning America caught wind of the challenge, but the big surprise was when local business owners came out to help the challengers celebrate New Year’s in style, complete with tuxedos, a private butler and an entire barbecued pig. This monumental risk payed off when two weeks and a lot of challenges later, the final two fans came down and got to be treated like VIPS as they watched Clemson take the National Championship.