OSU unveils aggressive new marketing campaign

Friday, September 16, 2005

With a 115-year history of serving every corner of Oklahoma and a five-campus student enrollment approaching 33,000, Oklahoma State University rightly considers itself "The STATE's University" and will now use the tagline in an aggressive new marketing campaign aimed at increasing pride among students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the university.

“‘The STATE's University’ embodies OSU's historic mission to serve as Oklahoma's premier land-grant institution,” said OSU System CEO and President David J. Schmidly. “Today, more than ever, OSU is making a difference in the economic development of our state and the education of our citizens. ‘The STATE’s University’ is a perfect tribute to our spirit, our mission and our vision for the future.”

Already appearing in advertising and on billboards in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Kyle Wray, OSU director of marketing, said it will soon be seen on all university marketing materials, including business cards, advertisements, news releases and university publications. The campaign has also encompassed alumni publications with the August 2005 release of the inaugural "STATE Magazine."

Serving the state as its premier land-grant institution, Wray said the campaign intends to inform the public about OSU's success.

"The three-fold mission of a land-grant university is to provide greater access to higher education, conduct research for the common good and make those results available to the public," he said. "OSU has excelled at its land-grant mission and this campaign intends to share that with the public."

According to alumni, declaring OSU is "The STATE's University" is a good way to ignite a few flares. Linda McDonald, '70 OSU alumna, said she felt an orange surge after driving by the Oklahoma City billboard.

"'The STATE's University' really evoked a sense of pride because it's a creative way to celebrate how much the university means to me and the state of Oklahoma," McDonald said.

OSU's statewide presence includes campuses in Stillwater, Tulsa (its OSU-Tulsa campus as well as the OSU Center for Health Sciences, which includes the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine), Oklahoma City, and Okmulgee, extension offices serving every county in Oklahoma, and 16 experiment stations.

Through its impressive extension, OSU attracts students from all 77 Oklahoma counties and plays a major role in economic development and research projects impacting the entire state.