Explore some recent projects and discover how we elevate the great work of the University of Oregon.
Website Redesign for the Lundquist College of Business
What: The communications team in the Lundquist College of Business worked closely with University Communications’ Digital Strategy team to launch a new website for the college in March 2023. The Digital Strategy team’s Drupal platform now supports primary websites for all schools and colleges at the UO.
Strategic Objective: Enhance the UO's reputation and that of the Lundquist College of Business with a new website, which showcases a well-defined, compelling, and differentiated brand and delivers consistent, effective, and integrated messaging serving multiple audiences.
How: Over the course of more than a year, teams worked together to design and develop usability and messaging to support the college’s website, while developing new functionality that can be scaled across the University Communications web platform. Because of the college’s engagement and commitment to the process, the improvement is continuous, with potential for new features to be piloted and deployed.
Announcing 19th President
What: The University of Oregon announced John Karl Scholz as its 19th president on March 13, 2023.
Strategic Objective: Introduce the UO community and world to the 19th president, building momentum and setting a tone for success.
How: The announcement was a collaborative effort involving staff from across University Communications, involving senior leaders and members of the photo/video, digital strategy, media relations and internal and executive communications teams.
Launch Oregon
What: The UO and the University of Oregon Foundation jointly established Launch Oregon, LLC, to support UO innovators in various programs and colleges at the university.
Strategic Objective: Position Launch Oregon as the latest success in the UO’s efforts to innovation.
How: Collaboration among OVPRI communications, University Communications and the UO Foundation to livestream an announcement event with story and web text, push to regional media and presentation on the OVPRI website.
Mighty Oregon
What: In 2022, university leadership identified a series of strategic priorities for the institution. At the start of 2023, University Communications published the “Mighty Oregon” digital report showcasing how the UO is tackling nine key challenges.
Strategic Objective: The project helped define each of the priorities and began the process of organizing communications across the institution and across teams to support each priority. The Mighty Oregon webpages provide a landing place to provide the latest updates on the university’s work and highlight the UO’s research, teaching, and success.
How: The report was a collaborative effort involving staff from across University Communications and the school, college and unit communication teams.
2022 SOJC Yearbook
What: The annual SOJC Yearbook is a web-based round-up of some of the top achievements of students, faculty, and staff from the entire calendar year.
Strategic Objective: The digital-first SOJC Yearbook is intended to engage alumni; showcase the impact of donors’ investments and motivate them to continue giving; elevate the school’s reputation; and attract new students, faculty, and staff.
How: To showcase the best work of the year and encourage end-of-year giving, the SOJC Comms team produced a highly designed, strategically aligned digital yearbook. They made decisions about content type and organization based on analytics from past yearbooks. And they shared it with key target audiences via email and paid and organic social media.
Heard we were dropping our #SpotifyWrapped #CallMeADuck pic.twitter.com/V5Z6diKCnx
— University of Oregon (@uoregon) December 1, 2022
Spotify Wrapped | Duck Edition
What: Spotify has created a cultural moment with its annual Spotify Wrapped campaign which gives users personalized graphics with stats about their music-listening habits.
Strategic Objective: The university’s social media accounts joined the trending conversation to engage with current and prospective students by highlighting unique parts of the UO brand.
How: The University Communications social media team brainstormed concepts for the UO’s Spotify Wrapped and turned around the graphics in less than a day in order to capitalize on the trend.
Home Flight Scholars
What: In the fall of 2022, the University of Oregon announced the Home Flight Scholars Program. This program, available immediately to currently enrolled eligible undergraduate students, goes beyond breaking financial barriers for American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) residents to provide full tuition and fees to Oregon residents who are enrolled citizens of 574 federally recognized tribes.
Strategic Objectives: Drive awareness of the program while showcasing the UO as innovative, inclusive, and dedicated to student success.
How: University Communications took a comprehensive approach, pursuing national media, producing a video, and creating a web presence.
Shout | UOAA Monthly Newsletter
What: The UO Alumni Association (UOAA) sends a monthly newsletter to approximately 65,000 alumni and friends, containing alumni features, campus and athletics news, and more.
Strategic Objective: Through Shout, the UOAA strives to celebrate alumni by producing compelling, image-rich content that reaches strategic audiences and moves them toward deeper engagement and irrational Duck pride.
How: The UOAA produces original content for Shout based on its editorial calendar. Additionally, they work with alumni writers and partners across campus to cross-promote alumni-focused stories.
UO Business: The Magazine, Fall 2022
What: The annual magazine of the UO Lundquist College of Business reaching approximately 50k friends and alumni of the college.
Strategic Objective: With a new dean at the helm and a return to full in-person learning, it was time to further differentiate our brand and engage alumni by reminding our audience of the college’s robust offerings and showcasing recent faculty, student, and alumni successes.
How: The Lundquist College Communications staff used the theme “Making a Splash” to introduce the new dean to our audience—capturing a forward-looking era for the college in a fresh, photo-packed design.
ESPN College GameDay
What: In October 2022, ESPN’s College GameDay returned to the University of Oregon campus for its 11th visit as the Ducks took on the UCLA Bruins.
Strategic Objective: Although an athletically focused event, GameDay was an opportunity to amplify the University of Oregon brand, engage a broad community of Ducks, and showcase what it means to be a Duck.
How: University Communications staff joined our community in the early morning hours to capture fan moments throughout the GameDay broadcast and shared them on the institution’s social media accounts.
Front of the Flock
What: Prior to the start of fall term 2022, Patrick Phillips was named interim university president after Michael Schill became president of Northwestern University. This presented a unique communications opportunity to connect the interim president with the university community.
Strategic Objective: It’s traditional for the university president to visit with students and families during move in. It provides an opportunity for the president to connect with students as they begin their time at the University of Oregon.
How: University Communications staff worked with staff in University Housing to select a few students for the president to meet and do brief interviews with during move in. All of this was recorded and shared out through the university’s social media channels.
SOJC Virtual Tour
What: Research reveals that if prospective students come to campus and see the residents of Allen Hall in action, they are very likely to enroll at SOJC. But because not all students can afford to travel to campus ahead of time, the SOJC produced an engaging video tour.
Strategic Objective: To attract students to the SOJC from far and wide, including those who were unable to travel, the SOJC needed a video to differentiate the school from competitors, show all it has to offer, and communicate its unique and welcoming vibe.
How: The SOJC Comms Team worked with the school’s in-house video team to create a playful, yet professionally produced, virtual school tour. A student takes viewers on a humor-filled tour of everything the SOJC has to offer while conveying the quality of its programs.
Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact Annual Report
What: The year-end annual report shares Knight Campus accomplishments—from research to innovation to academics—with donors, the Knight Campus External Advisory Board, members of the Knight Campus community, and other stakeholders.
Strategic Objective: The annual report details all of the ways the Knight Campus is accelerating the cycle of moving discoveries to impacts for the greater good. The Knight Campus communications team created stories and used photos and videos, social media, and web design to make a colorful, visually driven account of the year.
How: The Knight Campus communications team produced the annual report in-house with the hope that it could serve as an online document as well as a printed document that could be handed out to stakeholders.
Hello World, Meet Oregon
What: The summer of 2022 brought the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 to Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
Strategic Objectives: University Communications staff successfully highlighted the UO as home to leading edge research and academics, especially in fields of sport and wellness, while communicating operational needs regularly to internal audiences.
How: We launched a website in spring 22 that we used as a launchpad for amazing research stories, resources for media, and information tailored for staff and faculty. In addition, we worked closely with UO colleagues and World Athletics Productions to provide video and stories to global broadcast teams.
Heart of Tracktown
What: When the World Athletic Championships came to the University of Oregon in the summer of 2022, many people wondered why such a high-profile event would come to a place like Eugene, Oregon. The Heart of Tracktown gave them all the answers and more.
Strategic Objective: The documentary was an opportunity to highlight what makes the University of Oregon a truly unique place. “Tracktown” isn’t just a nickname. It is a marker of who we are as a community and how we strive to make a difference in the world.
How: The University Communications video team developed the documentary over the course of several months, working with members of the community and programs throughout the university to highlight how running and track are woven into everything from community runs to cutting-edge research.