UC Partners With National Marketing Firm

The University of Cincinnati has formed a new partnership to emphasize its reputation as a premier institution of higher learning. The university has hired Chicago-based Lipman Hearne, the nation's largest marketing and communications firm serving exclusively non-profit institutions, to help develop a comprehensive marketing plan for UC.

Greg Vehr, UC vice president for Governmental Relations and University Communications, says, "It is time to increase public awareness about the world-class university in our own backyard. Under the leadership of UC President Joseph A. Steger, we've spent a decade transforming this campus into a dynamic center of discovery in teaching, research, student learning and student life. It's time now to spread the word about the university's transformation over the past 10-15 years."

A multi-year contract with Lipman Hearne was signed in December after a five-month search for a firm with the capacity to develop a comprehensive marketing program, plus be a good fit for the university. It turns out the right fit held a connection to UC. Lipman Hearne chairman and founder Bob Lipman is a UC alum, graduating from UC's graphic design program after a successful co-op experience in Chicago.

Mary Stagaman, UC assistant vice president for Community Relations and Marketing, says the Lipman Hearne team will make its first visit to the campus in January to meet with the university community and become more familiar with the UC culture.

Lipman Hearne CEO Tom Abrahamson will lead the team of senior consultants, all of whom have extensive backgrounds in higher education.

The agency has a strong research capacity and a 30-year history of success in building campaigns for institutions of higher education. Among its dozens of university clients, current and past, are Harvard University, Duke University and Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT). Lipman Hearne has also served foundations and charities, cultural institutions such as the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, and numerous hospitals and other health care institutions.

Stagaman adds the marketing campaign is the next logical step for the university, which launched a new branding program in September 2001. "When we hired Libby Perszyk Kathman, Inc., to assist us in better leveraging the UC brand, we embraced a shared concept of who we are and what we're all about. We have much to offer students, graduates and the region as a whole, and Lipman Hearne can help us take our story to a wider audience, not just here but across the nation and beyond."

The first phase of the new marketing program is expected to go public by summer 2003.