Arizona football is making a bold statement with its 2013 marketing campaign.

The advertisement features a direct message that is found on posters, billboards, bus shelters, TV and radio, “Our state your Wildcats: make a Statement.”

“From a marketing stand point, generating interest, we wanted to get people excited about supporting their home team, their fellow ‘Arizonians’, their fellow ‘Tucsonians’ and also from a recruiting stand point, our coaches like it because we want to own the state of Arizona,” said Ben Chulick, assistant athletic director for marketing.

Previous UA football marketing slogans include, “get in the game,” “game day: the best part is being there,” “get with the program,” ‘your team,” “live it live,” “I am Arizona football,” “let the games begin,” “every down bear down” and “think Arizona.”

Arizona selected UA alumnus Bryan Rosenbaum, a web designer/developer, to design the visuals.

“It was a dream of mine and so I was really happy to do it and I do really like the fact that it’s bold and it’s different,” Rosenbaum said. “It seems to play off of Greg Byrne’s ‘take the state’ sort of thought and it plays off that pretty well.”

Rosenbaum, who worked for the Daily Wildcat from 1997 to 2001, designed the bus shelter ads, billboards and the poster, which is cut in the shape of the state and features six players. The poster includes the slogan “Our state your Wildcats: make a Statement,” with “our” and “Wildcats” including the gradient effect that the new uniforms feature.

“The state thing, the outline there, it’s definitely a little different and it costs just a little bit more but it’s definitely worth it to get the response from people,” Chulick said. “People are really excited about seeing the state of Arizona.”

The poster features senior linebacker Jake Fischer, junior safety Jared Tevis, senior linebacker Marquis Flowers, senior receiver Terrence Miller, senior offensive lineman Chris Putton and senior defensive lineman Tevin Hood.

Matt Dudek, on campus recruiting coordinator, Mike Parrish, director of football operations, Molly O’Mara, associate director of communication services and John Daley, director of video production developed the idea.

After that, the marketing staff met with Rosenbaum, who did not work with Nike.

“I wanted to get the font for the numbers. I asked Ben but they wouldn’t give it to them. It was a proprietary font, but I just basically took the colors and mashed it up and worked it into the ‘our state your Wildcats’ part,” Rosenbaum said.

The UA will not necessarily employ similar marketing campaigns for other sports, as different coaches have different visions for their programs, Chulick said.

“These are things that nowadays are not just used for trying to get people to buy tickets, but it’s also used for recruiting, it gets the message of the program out there,” Chulick said.

In recent years, vice president for athletics Greg Byrne put more of an emphasis on owning the state.

“Greg Byrne made it much more localized I think,” Rosenbaum said.
Rosenbaum said he felt the campaign might be awkward after No. 24 Arizona lost to ASU 41-34 last November, blowing a 10-point fourth quarter lead, but hoped it might give the Wildcats good fortune.

“When ASU fans see it, I wonder what they think?” Rosenbaum said. “‘Wait a second, we won.’ Hopefully this year it gives them good luck.”

The posters are available at the Jim Click Hall of Champions on the north side of McKale Center, or they can be ordered online with shipping costs.