Within the last week Waynesburg University has released a new general marketing campaign. The campaign is titled Grow for the key messages that are being sent. For undergraduate students, the key messages are growing your mind, grace and spirit as well as growing through service according to the Grow marketing initiative playbook.

The Grow campaign has a primary goal of attracting students to the university, according to Stacey Brodak, vice president for institutional advancement and university relations.

“The top goal in designing this was our perspective markets,” said Brodak. “Both undergraduate and graduate students.”

The campaign was brought to life by the university relations team and has been something the university has been trying to accomplish for some time.

“2013 was our last marketing campaign effort and over time you realize in about five years we were well due for a new marketing effort completely,” said Brodak.

According to Ashely Wise, director of university relations, the campaign showcases what the university stands for while also appealing to a broader audience.

“I think one of the goals was to really share the mission of the university through the campaign in a way that appeals to all of our different markets,” said Wise.

While the campaign targets both graduate and undergraduate students, the numbers of undergraduate population out-weighs the population of graduate students. The graduate population still presents an opportunity to market according to Brodak.

For Wise, this was the reason for choosing the title of the campaign, its wide audience range.

“I think that’s why we landed on the Grow concept, because it can be applied to all the different markets,” said Wise.

Another goal for this campaign was to attempt to make the images and videos as real as possible, after testing some of the materials with different groups like millennials and people from Generation Z.

“The one thing we really particularly noted, [Millennials and Gen Z] can see if something isn’t authentic,” said Brodak.  “They know if its fake, so we knew that stock images were not going to speak to that audience.”

When making the promotional posters and videos Brodak said they received permission to go into classes to capture “authentic” images.

The posters, which can be seen hanging on the glass doors in the Benedum dining hall, feature real students and give you the students’ first name if university relations are able to acquire it.

Brodak’s hope is that the new campaign will reinforce what Waynesburg represents and set the university apart from others.

“I think the idea behind it is that there is an opportunity with this campaign to really build a strong brand for who we are,” said Brodak. “It really differentiates us from other institutions that we are competing against.”