coe-staff: Marketing, communications, and branding at the COE

Wed Jan 27 14:48:35 PST 2016

Good Afternoon,

If you produce or approve any external outreach pieces, print or electronic, including e-mail, newsletters, websites or rich media, or if you are curious about reaching local/national media, then please read this message at some point. Likewise if you are new, or relatively new, to the college. It is chock-full of useful information and links about the marketing services available to you and hopefully answers most of your lingering questions.

There are three people on the marketing/communications staff: I am the director, Lillian Winkler-Rios is the marketing design coordinator, and Aaron Montoya is the web communications specialist. An exhaustive summary of the services we provide, who does what, where we’re coming from, and a menu of services is here<https://coe.uoregon.edu/coe-news/2015/10/30/fall-2015-marketing-update/>. If you only read one thing, read that; it includes a fairly comprehensive list of services and estimated material costs. All posts related to marketing are in The Loop<https://coe.uoregon.edu/coe-news/category/marketing/>.

The broad strokes

We essentially are a full-service, in-house creative agency for the COE. Projects for the dean’s office and development take priority, along with any other strategic priorities the dean specifies. You do not have to use our services, but <http://creative.uoregon.edu/> central <http://creative.uoregon.edu/> <http://creative.uoregon.edu/> UO creative services<http://creative.uoregon.edu/> are not free. With us, you only pay for materials or excessive revisions<https://coe.uoregon.edu/coe-news/2015/11/02/content-gauntlet-approval/>. Between the three of us, we have about 45 years of experience in marketing and communications. If you’re not sure where to start, start with me.

UO brand guidelines changed one year ago. This change includes new UO marks (logos), new fonts and colors, and a new tone. Our department is responsible for incorporating these guidelines in the pieces we produce, however that is only a fraction of everything that comes out of the COE. The value in following brand guidelines is that they help ensure consistency, which is a hallmark of a strong brand. The only solid, recognizable brand on campus (in the traditional sense) is the UO brand, and leveraging that association is in your best interest—as is respecting its rules for use.

All current brand guidelines can be found at brand.uoregon.edu<http://brand.uoregon.edu/>. The old brand guide was a clunky PDF, but this one is searchable and useful.

If ever you are communicating information that could potentially put the college or the UO in a negative light, please run it by me first, if for no other reason than to look it over for typos. Many PR issues can be avoided or at least mitigated before they take shape.

A shallow dive

LOGOS/MARKS
We have new COE marks, in horizontal and square formats, in a variety of color combinations. You can download them from the brand site, but they are in .eps, a vector format most of you won’t be able to use. Thus, if you need to use one or more, simply refer to this handy PDF<https://coe.uoregon.edu/coe-news/files/2015/01/COE-logo-sheet-sm.pdf> and let any of us know which one(s) you want by their code, and how you intend to use it (print, Web, video, etc). We will provide them in .png format, which has a transparent background. Never modify a UO mark in any way except to resize it, and if you do resize it, always hold down the SHIFT key so it resizes proportionally.

The old marks and fonts aren’t “wrong,” but you should move to the new ones right away. The new marks employ something called the “block system” which means they can be broken apart in certain ways. Let us worry about that.

If you want a clean, consistent HTML signature line that resembles the one at the end of this note where the graphics don’t show up as attachments, I’m happy to provide instructions on how to do it.

FONTS
The new general-purpose institutional font for most applications except e-mail is called Kievit. The old font, Melior, is still okay to use but Kievit is WAY more flexible and, mercifully, sans-serif. You can download the basic Kievit set here<http://brand.uoregon.edu/downloads>. The downside to both these fonts is that you won’t find them outside UO. That means if you use it in a document (e.g. PowerPoint) and share the file with someone else, their computer will substitute a different font and ruin your formatting. If that concerns you—and it should—read this<https://coe.uoregon.edu/coe-news/2015/10/30/about-presentations/>. For e-mail, we recommend a basic sans-serif font like Verdana, Tahoma, Calibri, etc. If your e-mail template uses a wallpaper background of some sort, please consider removing it.

COLORS
Primary UO colors are still yellow and green, but a very specific yellow and green. They now are both slightly closer to primary than before. Read all about them here<http://brand.uoregon.edu/colors>. Secondary and tertiary colors should be used VERY sparingly. If you’re not sure how to change colors in a document to specific RGB, CMYK, or hex values, just ask.

TONE/VOICE
For the most part, you don’t have to worry about this, but if you find some UO communications to be too “cute” or not reflect the appropriate degree of gravitas, bear in mind that it is intended to be distinctive and appeal to prospective students and faculty. To paraphrase a colleague, “It doesn’t matter if you like it—it matters if it works.” You’re invited to read my <https://coe.uoregon.edu/coe-news/2015/11/02/audiences-enga%E2%80%A6ing-interested/> post<https://coe.uoregon.edu/coe-news/?p=651> about this topic.

STYLE
The UO uses Chicago style, with only slight variations<http://brand.uoregon.edu/editorial-style-guide>. It does not use AP or APA style (though public affairs communications<http://communications.uoregon.edu/public-affairs-communications> issues press releases and Around the O stories in AP style). You may not agree with these conventions, but we adhere to them for anything we produce on your behalf and ask that you follow suit. Again—consistency.

PHOTOGRAPHY
I encourage you to read this rant about photography<https://coe.uoregon.edu/coe-news/?p=528> at the COE, but mainly know this: One, we have THOUSANDS of relatively recent photos of various types. If you need a photo of any kind for marketing/outreach purposes, just ask and specify what you have in mind. If we can’t find it, we’ll arrange to make it. Two, “posterity” is not a sufficient rationale for professional shooting and editing. Such photos are seldom used. If you need photos for posterity, we will gladly lend you a camera, though most smartphones will take adequate pictures of groups, speakers, etc. We also have interns from the SOJC who can pinch-hit for such occasions.

VIDEO
We have everything we need to produce video and motion graphics, but it’s very time-consuming. Video is not optimal for presenting detailed information, but it can help move people to act (e.g. share the video, donate, etc.) if you do it right. In other words, video is a medium of emotion; it can create the conditions necessary for receptivity to a message (e.g. “They seem fun.”), but don’t count on it to convey that message.

In general, there is very little our office cannot produce in-house, given the time and willingness to collaborate. If you have any questions about our capabilities or expertise, please ask.

Thank you,
Cody

________________________________
[COE logo]              Cody Pinkston | Director of Marketing
cpinksto at uoregon.edu<mailto:cpinksto at uoregon.edu> | 541-346-1392
270 Lokey Ed | 1215 University of Oregon
        [facebook logo] <http://www.facebook.com/uoeducation>   [twitter logo] <http://www.twitter.com/uoeducation>     [youtube logo] <http://www.youtube.com/uoeducation>     [flickr logo] <http://www.flickr.com/uoeducation>       [instagram logo] <http://www.instagram.com/uoeducation>

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