Billboards, radio spots and TV commercials encouraging students to “Unleash Your Awesomeness” have been launched across Tennessee.Unleash Your Awesomeness is the latest marketing campaign put together by the Office of Communications and Marketing. The campaign was developed over a nine-month period to target 14-to-17-year-old high school students with help from an external marketing agency and is being used in place of More Than Tech.
Current students are not as impressed with the new marketing efforts.
“The slogan sounds unprofessional,” Nathan Beane, sophomore geology major, explained, “It seems like Tech is trying way too hard to recruit more students.”
Kerri Potts, senior marketing major, said, “The slogan sounds like something you would tell a kindergarten class, to unleash your awesomeness. High school students or adults looking for a university are way past the stage of this type promotion and encouragement. They see right past it and deem it corny.”
The Office of Communications and Marketing is not discouraged by the current student’s thoughts of the marketing campaign. “The campaign is geared towards 14-17 year olds, not students who are already in college,” Maynard said.
Awesome Eagle is the focal point in Unleash Your Awesomeness campaign but it was not in the original plan.
“Awesome Eagle is identifiable in our community and across campus, not just in sports. He even interacts with elementary and high students during Channel 4’s Cool Schools every Friday,” Maynard said.
“We will not receive official numbers on how well the marketing campaign worked until the end of the summer,” Maynard said. “Thus far the reaction among high school students to Unleash Your Awesomeness has been positive.”
Tech has taken their advertising viral by targeting Tennesseans who are 14-17 year olds on Facebook.
“The ads we pay for on Facebook will take the 14-17 year old to the Tech fan page,” Maynard explained. “We have seen a spike in our ‘likes’ for that age group since instituting the ads.”
For more information on the Unleash Your Awesomeness marketing campaign visit www.unleashyourawesomeness.org.
