November 2001

FSU advertises it's research

By Barbara Ash
Coordinator, research communications

In mid-October, Florida State launched a year-long campaign that highlights research and creative accomplishments of its faculty.

"People know Florida State University as home to the Seminoles," President Sandy D'Alemberte said. "That's just a small part of the picture. There's so much more to know about this university, especially our academic strength as one of the nation's top research universities."

Print ads will appear monthly in Fortune, Science and Florida Trend magazines and weekly in the D.C/Balti-more/Southern Region editions of The Wall Street Journal. The ads also will run in the Florida State Times and FSU's student recruitment publication, 'Nole Notes. A 30-second television spot will air nationally during football halftimes.

"These high-profile publications are the perfect way to reach more affluent, more informed audiences," said Raymond Bye, vice president for research and president of the FSU Research Foundation, which is paying for the campaign. "Higher education has become a very competitive business, and FSU must compete aggressively against other institutions worldwide for research grants, resources and, of course, top students and star faculty. "

To make an impression amid the high volume of advertising that people are exposed to every day, Bye said, FSU needed to develop a simple, clear and powerful message.

"Our strategy centered on the outside-the-box thinking and work done at FSU that leads to the limitless potential," said Mark Thomas, account group director at St. John & Partners in Jacksonville, the advertising/public relations firm developing the campaign. At FSU there is an atmosphere that pushes thinking forward, people who push ideas forward, often, into the marketplace."

Dan St. John, agency CEO and chairman, is an FSU alumnus.
"I am proud of the significant work being done at FSU, like the synthesizing of Taxol, power generation research at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and accurate hurricane modeling," St. John said. "We are excited about the unique challenge of positioning Florida State University as one of the top education and research centers in the country."

The Office of Research web site, www.research.fsu.edu, has been re-designed to incorporate the same message.
"We are excited that the research is being highlighted in the ad campaign," said Jim Melton, head of the FSU Alumni Association. "As we talk to alumni all across the country, one of the first recollections they mention is that one faculty member who has had such an influence on their lives and their profession. They now can see the value of research at Florida State."

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