NEWS | October 31, 2003

Admissions
New face to grace UTA ads
The university’s Marketing Office revamps its strategy under a tightened budget.

By Mindy Hutchison
Contributor to The Shorthorn

The new face of UTA will be on one billboard this year because university officials cut the advertising budget by 67 percent.

Tracey Cichock, marketing and communications director, said the marketing budget dropped from $457,000 to $150,000 for this fiscal year. To compensate for the cut, the university canceled its contract with Cooksey Communications and reduced its number of advertisements.

Cichock said the university will no longer advertise on television and will use fewer print advertisements. Radio advertisements have been reduced from 30 seconds to 10 seconds long.

Last year, the university advertised on three billboards and on television, she said. The advertising cuts, she said, should not hurt enrollment or recruiting efforts. The university has 24,979 students, fewer than 100 shy of an all-time high.

“We really have to stretch our money and use it wisely,” she said.

The remaining billboard costs $1,000 to create and $5,000 per month in rental fees.

The university previously collaborated with Cooksey on a three-phase project to promote the university in the Metroplex. The focus of phase one was to attract attention to UTA, and phase two involves building the university’s image. She said marketing officials are still on the second phase. She is unsure if the university will expand the program for the last phase.

There is no permanent president to make that kind of decision, she said.

“If the new president doesn’t like the campaign, he’ll change it,” she said. “If the new president thinks we need more marketing, he might allocate more money.”

For now, though, she said she’ll work with what she has.

Nursing senior Melissa Avalos didn’t know about the office’s financial situation. She’s excited, though, to represent the university as the face of UTA on the one remaining billboard. The billboard displaying her picture is on the east side of Interstate 30 at the Cooper Street exit.

Avalos said she believes she was chosen because she’s an “average” student.

“I’m not an 18-year-old freshman but not a 30-year-old graduate student,” she said.

Avalos, an Arlington native, said she chose the university for its nursing programs. She has been involved in Greek Life, the now defunct UTA Americorps program, the Center for Mexican American Studies and the Center for Multicultural Cooperation.

Cichock said she selected Avalos from other models in the university’s view book, a publication given out to high schools, because Avalos had “a popular major, a great grade point average and the right look.”

Cichock also said she wanted to pick someone with an ethnically diverse background. Avalos is half Mexican-American and half Caucasian.

In March, public relations junior Zach Walker’s face will replace Avalos’ on the billboard. He said he is flattered to be part of the campaign.

He said he likes the new motto for the ads — Uncover Your Potential — because it relates to his experience at the university. When he was 17 years old, he became marketing director for EX.C.E.L. Campus Activities and decided to change his major from engineering.

“For the first time in my life, I realized I enjoyed dealing with people and making a difference on campus. That’s when everything changed for me,” he said. “That’s when I realized I love this place.”

He gave up a scholarship to stay at the university, he said. Walker is president-elect for Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and an instructor of Foundations of Leadership, an education course.

“I’m honored that UTA thinks I would represent it well,” Walker said.

Cichock said she is looking for cost-efficient ways to promote the university.

She said using student representatives for billboards is good, but sending representatives to speak to the community is cheaper.

She said she’s created a bureau of 50 faculty and staff members who will visit with organizations across the Metroplex. The bureau is still in the early stages, she said, but she will send speakers beginning next spring.

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