Opening Session: 8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

Join us for an opening session kick-off for the Summer Institute hosted by NC State’s Chief Communications Officer and Associate Vice Chancellor for University Communications and Marketing, Brad Bohlander. Network with fellow communicators and enjoy light refreshments and coffee.

Session 1: 9:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

(Select One)

Ten Hacks to Take Your Marketing Plan to the
Next Level
Jennifer Kendall
University Communications and Marketing
Director of Client Relations and Marketing Strategy
There’s a lot of buzz in higher education surrounding strategic marketing planning. For many professionals, creating a strategic marketing plan just means checking off another box on a long “to-do” list. In today’s increasingly competitive educational landscape — and with decreasing budgets — well-thought-out marketing plans remain your most powerful weapon. With advice from top industry marketing executives and the country’s leading marketing professors, this presentation will uncover everything they don’t tell you in Marketing 101. Learn from others’ mistakes (and successes) while getting practical tools and best practices to take your strategic marketing plan to the next level.

It’s Both What You Say and How You Say It: Using a Strategic Voice and Tone in Your Writing
Brent Winter
University Communications and Marketing
Writer and Editor
Just as your voice reveals your personality and your tone adjusts to fit your situation, so should your writing use a strategically chosen voice and tone that reflect the NC State brand. This presentation will cover the basics of what voice and tone are (including the fact that they’re not the same thing); discuss the building blocks of voice and tone, such as word choice, sentence length, grammar and syntax; and provide techniques for implementing a voice and tone that will bring NC State’s brand to life in your writing.

NC State Brand
Vicky Earp
University Communications and Marketing
Director, Creative Services
Learn how NC State’s brand is a singular, cohesive experience across many communications channels — including social media, video, print and the web. Understand the basic nuts and bolts of the NC State Think and Do brand. Find out how and why the brand rules were created, and see before and after examples of creative projects that put the rules into perspective. Feel free to bring your questions and examples.

Session 2: 10:15 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

(Select One)

Trend Spotting: Staying Ahead of the Crowd While Staying True to Your Pack
Drew Sykes
University Communications and Marketing
Lead Social Media Specialist
We’re exposed to more than 5,000 ads and pieces of content per day. We’re not only competing with our peer institutions for visibility in the clutter; we’re competing with big brands, friends and family. Drew Sykes takes a dive into how the Social Media Hub approaches content creation and how they approach storytelling with the newest old buzzword in mind: authenticity.

Visual Storytelling at NC State
Bob Witchger
University Communications and Marketing
Art Director
Find out how NC State designers can use design, illustration and photography to show our audiences who we are and what we do across the university. We’ll explore the creative process behind some of University Communications and Marketing’s more visually in-depth projects, their connections to the university brand and their reach and impact after their completion.

Session 3: 11:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

(Select One)

Introduction to Web Strategy
Allen Coin
University Communications and Marketing
Web Strategist
The internet is no longer the wave of the future; it is the reality of the present. With Americans now spending about 24 hours a week online, it is vitally important that organizations be strategic with their web communications. In this presentation, we will explore the topic of web strategy: What is “web strategy” anyway? And how can we be more strategic with our web properties? We will explore the web’s position in the marketing funnel, how we can drive traffic to our websites using tools like digital advertising and SEO — and most importantly, how we can use analytics and data-driven marketing decision-making to build better and more effective web experiences for our users.

Increase Your Social Presence with Good Video
Emily Vanaman
University Communications and Marketing
Interactive Media Producer
Most of us in communications here on campus carry around a smartphone of some kind. With each new update, your phone’s video capabilities are getting better and better. This session will run through best practices of filming on your phone and bringing that footage into an editing workflow. Learn to produce engaging and timely video content that you can post with a quick turnaround — and in some cases, right from the field. Areas covered include: smartphone videography, mobile video editing, desktop video editing and best practices for posting to social channels.

Getting the Most Out of Media Relations
News Services Team
University Communications and Marketing
Learn about the various media relations and training opportunities for faculty, staff and graduate students. We’ll outline our process, which generally starts with recruiting faculty to talk about their work and convincing them of the importance of communicating their research to the public. Then, we’ll go through types of training offered to faculty and staff to help them prepare for media interviews. This session will also delve into how we can help faculty and staff prepare for presentations to the public and will provide an overview of the various broadcast resources we have on campus to help faculty share their stories.

Session 4: 2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

(Select One)

Content Strategy and Storytelling
Alastair Hadden
University Communications and Marketing
Content Strategist
Learn the basics of content strategy and content marketing — and discover how they’re different. Dig into the unique challenges and opportunities facing content creators who work on behalf of a public research university. And get a gentle reminder of how NC State’s brand can be strengthened by every story we tell.

Case Study: Inbound Marketing with Hubspot
Christine Ferrell 
Poole College of Management
Director of Marketing and Media Relation

Jenny Hammond
Poole College of Management
Associate Director of Marketing

A properly configured email workflow strategy can enhance your lead generation efforts and ultimately contribute to enrollment growth. This session will feature the Poole College of Management showcasing how they have effectively used HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing and Automated Workflow tools to streamline marketing operations and enhance recruitment for two graduate programs.

The presenters will showcase usage with two different programs and will demonstrate the results of recent phases of optimization. By the end of this session, you should: have a good understanding of HubSpot (and similar email marketing tools); understand the fundamentals of Email Workflow Strategy and have an example you can take back to your unit for best practice benchmarking.

Selling with Social – A Deep Dive into Facebook Ads
Ann Marie Taepke
Walk West
Director of Digital Media
In the ‘pay to play’ world of Facebook, marketers need to structure a full sales funnel ecosystem through content in order to convert. In this session, attendees will learn advanced Facebook ad strategies proven to work with multiple case study examples that Ann Marie has worked on first-hand—from big brands to small businesses. Understand how to use creative content to drive sales and leads, improve organic performance by leveraging a paid media halo, and thoughtful approaches to ad targeting leveraging Audience Insights. Get a bigger bang for your buck and walk away with tangible ideas to use immediately!

Session 5: 3:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

(Select One)

Websites 101
Scott Thompson
University Communications and Marketing
Assistant Director of Web Development
Websites are a swiss army knife when it comes to digital communication. They handle various types of communication — from basic information to marketing content to specific, time-limited event information. This crash course will walk through the basics of creating a simple website, from goal and audience setting to basic search engine optimization (SEO) and web hosting. This presentation will also discuss various types of websites (i.e., marketing, informational, single-purpose microsite, etc.). Complementary tools (such as the email generator and Newswire) to help manage your digital communication efforts will also be covered. This session is geared toward people who are less familiar with updating and redesigning websites, but it may be a good refresher for others.

Marketing and Engaging with Generation Z
Angela Brockelsby
Associate Vice Provost and Director Communication, Marketing and Outreach
Enrollment Management and Services
With the next generation of prospective students born after the year 2000, admissions offices and enrollment management professionals are starting to adapt their marketing and recruitment strategies and tactics for Generation Z. However, to connect with this new generation, one needs to understand who the generation is and how they prefer to communicate — including their use of social media and technology — with content marketing as the linchpin to tie it all together. Learn what research tells us about this new generation to provide insight for marketing and recruitment professionals to recruit, engage and yield the next generation of students.

Photo 101: Best Practices for Better Photos
Roger Winstead
Photographer
From the basics to a few new phone and camera tricks, this session explores a wide range of photography techniques that will ensure better images. Whether for print publication or social media, the topics covered will assist in enhancing visual storytelling and better engaging viewers.