The UA recently introduced its new rebranding campaign with the main tagline “Bigger Questions. Better Answers. Bear Down.”
Eddie Navarette, associate vice president of marketing communications and brand management, said that the new tagline represents what the university aspires to be as a whole.
“This is an active tagline that builds into all the things that we do here,” Navarette said. “It’s grounded and something very important. It’s not just an athletic battle cry. It’s everything: It’s a way of living here, it’s a mindset — everything is grounded in this whole idea to ‘bear down,’ achieve and do well.”
The new marketing and rebranding campaign, which was launched on April 11, is one of the largest campaigns that has ever been launched at the UA. Phase one of this reinvention campaign is costing about $600,000, but it was entirely financed by foundation money received from donors, Navarette said.
This renovation of the UA’s image was much more complex than some may understand, Navarrete said, and the project has required a number of people working on it.
“We worked closely with every constituent group you could imagine on campus — faculty, staff, leadership, external partners, donors, alumni,” Navarrete said. “They helped us land on a concept through interviews and focus groups. It was a dedication to cadence.”
The introduction of the rebranding was concurrent with the launch of the Capital Campaign, the UA’s new fundraising campaign, so that the two could be introduced at the same time, according Chris Sigurdson, senior associate vice president of university relations.
Sigurdson said the focus of the rebranding campaign is to show people what the UA stands for and works toward.
“There’s who we are and making sure that it’s authentic and true to who we think we are, and making sure that people know who that is and why it’s important,” Sigurdson said. “In the advertising, there was a sincere desire to own something and tell the world what we do really well.”
The university looked for opinions from students, faculty, staff and alumni during the rebranding process.
“We wanted to take a look at what they thought about the UA, what came to mind, what they wanted to see,” Navarrete said. “After a while, we started to see patterns and themes and that helped us develop a couple of concepts for them to react to.”
Navarrete said that a number of qualitative and quantitative studies were done on alumni and donors from around the country to get their opinions as well.
The UA’s website has been completely renovated and was officially launched on April 15. Navarette said the website is much cleaner and more modernized and caters to everyone from prospective
students to faculty.
This new rebranding campaign can already be seen in action around campus and in Tucson and Phoenix. There are currently advertisements on Pandora and Spotify, as well as at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Tucson International Airport, on billboards on Interstate 10 and at local Tucson high schools and community colleges.
Taylor Ashton, chief of staff for the Associated Students of the University of Arizona and a political science junior, said he believes that the rebranding is great for students and the university.
“It’s something that was needed,” Ashton said. “The end result is awesome, and it goes hand in hand with the university’s new fundraising. There’s a lot of needed updates, whether it be the website or our publications. I saw it and thought it was great.”
Follow Adriana Espinosa @adri_eee
