The Univ. of Missouri is in the middle of a $400,000 advertising campaign "to celebrate the school’s impending move to the Southeastern Conference," according to Terez Paylor of the K.C. STAR. The school placed 16 billboards within the new SEC footprint of Georgia, Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama, and MU AD for Strategic Communications Andrew Grinch said, “It’s all about getting Missouri’s name out there." Grinch: "Maybe a high schooler or elementary schooler thinks of Missouri because of a billboard they see in Atlanta. Years later, when they’re thinking about colleges, a seed has already been planted.” Grinch said that in addition to the billboards and running commercials, the school has also "used online advertising through ESPN, Yahoo, XBox Live and Facebook to get its brand out there.” He added, “Far and away, the billboards have gotten the most attention.” Paylor noted not all the billboards "are the same." As the school “has already built a brand in Missouri and Texas, all eight instate billboards and the one in Dallas say ‘A New Era Begins.’” The other message, “plastered on the seven billboards scattered throughout the Southeast,” reads “Proud to be SEC.” Grinch said that MU “did consult a Columbia-based media buying agency that advised the school on several facets of the ad campaign.” Grinch noted that the company “used data it gathered to help the school decide where it should place the billboards for maximum exposure” (K.C. STAR, 5/7).
