On a dark and ominous night in the bustling and menacing streets of Orange County California, one brave man stands alone. Looking to Chicago. His call of duty igniting a scorching fire in his heart. Armed only with an 8 GB flash drive with a ferociously informative PowerPoint presentation saved on it, he knows what he has to do.

Managing Partner Damien Navarro and his trusty sidekick, Director of Communications and Brand Experience Amanda Vande Brake, are no strangers to the eduWeb Conference as this year’s event will mark EMG’s second appearance. The eduWeb Conference focuses on online marketing strategy and technology in the higher education community. With attendees from various Higher Ed institutions throughout the country, the conference provides a unique look at the frontend (MarCom) and the backend (Technology) bringing these two sides together in one conference, making it the perfect platform for EMG who happens to kick ass and take names in the realm of creating solutions that bridge gaps between marketing and technology. POW!!

EMG will begin its mission in the exhibit hall and, never fear, our dynamic duo is armed with fully loaded case studies to counter any villain challenging recruitment, enrollment and advancement success. WHAMM!! Says Girl Wonder Vande Brake: “We’re really looking forward to engaging with Higher Ed professionals from all types of institutions from all areas of the country. EMG has over 10 years of experience in education creating custom solutions for every kind of brand challenge. We know new challenges are constantly presenting themselves and our experience and success prove that we have the adaptability and capacity to solve them.” ZAP!!

In a characteristically heroic effort, Captain Navarro will be contributing to the conference his expertise in Branded Entertainment. In his presentation titled “Is Your Brand a Celebrity?” Navarro will share how an institution can cut through the clutter to reach a dedicated audience and develop a relationship that will result in increased enrollment and market share. KA-BLAM!! “Branded Entertainment is one of the most effective ways of creating brand awareness and audience engagement. You want to create campaigns that will resonate with your audience on their terms, which is essential for success. I’m hoping that the audience will find the presentation most informative.” Damien jokes, “If I fall short, I think the audience will forgive me once I give away the iPad.” CRASH?!?!

Did you say ‘give away an iPad’?! Yes, boys and girls, to all the good citizens of the world of Higher Ed, Team EMG brings an opportunity to win the latest gadget craze. Visit EMG at booth 4 in the exhibit hall to receive your free swaggerific “I Heart CHI-TOWN” t-shirt. Wear it and be entered to win the iPad. The winner will be announced at Damien’s presentation on Wednesday, July 28 @ 11am. (Sign up for Damien’s follow up webinar, on August 11th, here.)

Looking to optimize the conversion funnel? Need to create a more engaging experience? Desperately seeking better quality applicants? Want to increase advancement? Well, Chicago, Captain Navarro and Team EMG have seen the signal and we never fail to fulfill our duty!!!

Last week at the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals (NAGAP) annual conference in New York City, EMG gave away a pair of tickets to see the highly rated and extremely popular musicals Wicked and West Side Story.  Conference attendees were mailed a mock ticket for each show with a special number on the ticket a few weeks before the conference. By bringing that mock ticket to our booth, attendees were able to check if their number matched the seat number on the real tickets to instantly win the pair. If their number didn’t match, attendees were able to drop their business card for a drawing at the end of the day if the winner had not claimed their tickets. Congratulations to Fareza Khan from St. Thomas University School of Law for winning the pair of Wicked tickets and also to Jennifer Philpot from the University of Louisville for winning the pair of West Side Story Tickets. We hope you enjoyed the show!

Year after year offices, campuses and households are swept up in March Madness and the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, dreaming of the big upsets, buzzer beaters and of course, bracket poll bragging rights. Over the years however, I’ve been about as likely to watch, or care about, the NCAA Tournament as I am at becoming the next starting power forward for the Lakers. This year has been different though, this year my alma matter and small, little known school just outside Pittsburgh, PA, Robert Morris University appeared in the bracket for the first time since 1992 not only causing me to watch my first full tournament game but also, from doing marketing in for higher education, changed the way I look at the NCAA tournament forever.

Since Robert Morris is little known outside the Pittsburgh area and I now live in southern California, it’s VERY rare that I ever get more than an “oh ok” when I respond to someone asking where I went to college and at times I’ve even found myself replying with “I went to a small school in Pennsylvania, you never heard of it”. Now, with the NCAA Tournament underway and the national recognition that RMU has gotten from it, I found myself transformed into an ambassador for my school with a renewed sense of pride for the place that I got my degree.

Every time RMU was mentioned on TV or when people talked about the tournament, I found myself not only pointing out that I’m an alumni, but answering questions about the school and giving a two minute “sales pitch” on all the great things about it. After digging out my RMU alumni t-shirt and wearing it to the local sports bar to watch the game, I almost felt like a celebrity with the constant flow of people coming up to me and asking me about the school. Throughout the game I was in constantly responding to, and texting friends from college, some of which I hadn’t connected with in a long time, to talk about the game and how exciting it all was.

So now that you see how an NCAA Tournament appearance can affect alumni like me, let’s dig into what effect a Tournament appearance has on the university itself. For starters, as I mentioned previously, the NCAA tournament gives alumni a reason to reconnect with one another, have renewed pride and interest in their school and act as ambassadors which in turn will gives the school a new reason to reach out to those alumni for donations and involvement in events. Secondly, a large majority of high school students want to go to a “name brand” school and the local and national attention that the NCAA tournament provides drastically increases brand recognition and interest from perspective students and inquiries and applications should see a huge spike as a result. Schools like Gonzaga and Duke are prime examples of small schools with a small student population but being nationally known due to having a strong basketball program. Another great example was in 2007 when Appalachian State upset Michigan in a football game to go from complete national obscurity to infamy over night.

This all comes back to the importance of college sports programs and how their success can directly affect the success and growth of a university and can help to attract new students and donors. For small, obscure schools, like Robert Morris, proper use of the money the school will receive from appearing in the tournament along with a great marketing, communications and PR campaign to capture the spike in interested and attention and build off the tournament momentum can lead to positive growth for years to come.