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Both universities to air regional spots during biggest sporting event
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Feb 03, 2008
Pitches from two area universities will be sandwiched between ads for beer, lingerie and the like during tonight's Super Bowl XLII.
Both Kent State and the University of Akron will pitch academic excellence to regional viewers before, during and after the game.
''We're trying to create top-of-mind awareness, and what better way to do that than with the Super Bowl?'' said Tom Neumann, associate vice president for university communications and marketing at Kent State. ''It's a one-time opportunity to reach a large segment of the population.''
UA will spend $41,395 and Kent State, $21,000, for a package of ads on Fox 8 Cleveland that will be relayed throughout Northeastern Ohio — which, coincidentally, is the very geographic area that both of these universities want to reach.
They will be among a flood of local and national ads that will deluge viewers during the NFL championship played at the stadium named for the for-profit University of Phoenix,
which has bought its own pregame ads.
While national airtime at $2.7 million for 30 seconds for a game spot is beyond the reach of colleges and universities, a local purchase of a targeted area can be a bargain, according to Bonnie Drewniany, an associate professor at the University of South Carolina who teaches what she believes to be the only course in the country on Super Bowl advertising.
Regional buys are a ''brilliant idea,'' if the ad is good, if it puts the school in a positive light and if viewers later can link the message to the institution, she said.
''It's all about alumni relations and donors. If you have a smart commercial, I say it's a bargain,'' she said.
This will be the ninth year UA has bought regional airtime. The university developed two 30-second commercials specifically for the event.
One with special effects will feature UA President Luis Proenza and the university's ''spark of innovation'' — a blue orb that will bridge the ad from beginning to end.
The other ad recognizes UA alumni Chase Blackburn and Domenik Hixon, both of whom will play for the New York Giants against the New England Patriots in the game.
UA ads to air six times
UA's ads will appear three times during pregame programming, once during the game and twice during post-game news. Fox 8 also will run 20 promotional announcements mentioning UA during the day.
''Our audience is very broad,'' UA spokesman Ken Torisky said. ''We hope to reach parents, prospective students, alumni, prospective donors and others.''
There is no way to gauge their effectiveness, he said, but one measure is the feedback that Proenza has received in previous years from people who tell him they saw the commercial.
Proenza has appeared in most of them, Torisky said.
''People make it a point to tell him they saw it,'' Torisky said.
Ten miles down the road, Kent State is running its first Super Bowl ad — a 15-second spot carved from a 30-second commercial that has aired for the last year.
Neumann said Kent State's ad would air four times before the game, once during the game and twice later in the week.
The ad features Robert Heath, a professor of biological sciences, and student Dana McDermott doing research for a federal water project on a boat in Lake Erie.
McDermott graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology from KSU in 2006.
Neumann said the university wouldn't have pursued a Super Bowl buy if it had meant developing an ad from scratch, but being able to use an existing product seemed ''prudent.''
A quick check of some other state-supported Ohio universities indicates many don't want to do even that.
Spokesmen at Ohio State, Cleveland State, Youngstown State, the University of Cincinnati and Miami University said their institutions will not advertise during the Super Bowl.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
Pitches from two area universities will be sandwiched between ads for beer, lingerie and the like during tonight's Super Bowl XLII.
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