Education Opps: University of Washington promotes marketing VP (Score 67)

Sales Lead: Jack Martin became the marketing and communications VP at the University of Washington (UW), effective December 2022.

• Martin joined the University in April 2015 as its senior strategic communications director.
  • In the past, he has led key initiatives such as the "Yes, It's Possible" campaign, for which the University worked to raise awareness of financial aid opportunities.
  • Martin also spearheaded the launch of UW Current, a monthly newsletter; led the "Be Boundless" campaign; and will continue leading its Covid-related efforts.
• Now, he leads its brand cohesion, comprehensive integrated marketing, and communications strategy.
  • Martin guides and oversees UW's brand strategy, marketing, communications, reputation development, and associated strategies.
  • Right now, Martin's key focuses include implementing the University's next brand renewal era, preparing for its next fundraising campaign, and supporting its on-campus Portage Bay Crossing development.
    • He retained previous responsibilities such as advancing student recruitment, student success, leader and partner goals, and UW's local, state, and federal agendas.
• He succeeds Mary Gresch, who was promoted to advancement SVP in September 2021.
• The University will likely:
  • Ramp up spend, particularly digital spend, to reach younger audiences
  • Conduct agency reviews
• Target demographic: 
  • Potential college and grad students, so primarily Gen-Z and millennials

​​​​​​​Additional recent leadership shifts:

• UW also appointed strategic communications and integrated marketing director Katherine Schiffner in August 2022.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, UW has spent approximately $232.7k on national TV commercials, 9% more than the approximately $213.3k spent in 2021.
  • Last year: The organization spent around $213.3k on this channel last year after having spent 26% more, around $269k, in 2020.
  • 2022 ad programming: UW's 2022 commercials have targeted the male-skewed audience of shows such as College Football, College Basketball, The Drew Barrymore Show, College Softball, and Women's College Basketball.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The organization has allocated roughly $95.8k toward digital ads YTD.
  • YTD data: UW has earned ~9.3m digital impressions YTD via desktop display (65%), Facebook (18%), mobile display (11%), and Twitter (5%) ads.
    • T​​​​​​the University has placed most of this year's desktop display ads site direct onto site destinations such as thestranger.com (78%), seattletimes.com, king.org, spokesman.com, and nwsource.com.
  • Last year: In 2021, UW's estimated full-year spend of $119.1k reached less than a third of that of $390.4k in 2020.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The University utilizes print (newspapers), OOH, and local broadcast.
  • As a Seattle local, I can attest that UW invests in localized ad space in and around the city.
  • You can tell by the video above that the University also works with cause marketing such as its Brotherhood Initiative, which launched in 2016, and its fledgling Sister Initiative.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Contact soon to get on Martin's radar.
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​VP promotions don't always lead to agency reviews as often as CMO appointments do, but they are certainly still possible.
  • An advantage will go to those with education experience.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​No current agency relationships yet confirmed

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Kantar.​​​​​​​