We needed to find a fresh, innovative way of promoting the University of Florida, the prestigious Flagship University of the State of Florida typically associated with a stellar sports program and history of being top-ranked in the yearly “party school” rankings.
The first TV spots that we created for the University of Florida focused on the impact that the millions of Gators have had across the Globe. The first spot, titled “Go Gators” helped the University become the only University in 2006 to rise in the U.S. News & World Report Rankings, as well as revolutionize Collegiate advertising. Another sign of the success of the campaign is the multitude of parodies (the sincerest form of flattery) on YouTube, posted by UF rivals.
The new campaign we created for the University of Florida is titled “When Did You Become a Gator?” and focuses on the emotional ties that all Gators have to the University. As part of an integrated campaign across print, broadcast, mobile and interactive mediums, a website (insidethegatornation.com) was launched to capture the sentiments that Gators everywhere have for the University of Florida and the moment they truly realized that they were a Gator.
Since the new campaign launched, Gators have posted over 1,000 unique “How I Became a Gator” videos to the branded YouTube page under the tags “When Did You Become a Gator” or “When Did You Become a Florida Gator.” The videos were either uploaded by individuals or captured by the “When Did You Become a Gator” Mobile video booth which traveled to various Gator events across the Southeast. The campaign has been received extremely well by the Gator Nation and the number of views of the videos have already surpassed the student population.
(From the portfolio of our Creative Director, Brandy Gill)
