Blog Recap:
Hey there, Higher Ed marketers! Have you ever wondered what it’s like to step into the shoes of a Director of Marketing & New Media at a community college? Well, wonder no more. In our latest podcast episode, Ep. 91: “What to Do in the First Year as Director of Marketing & New Media”, Shiro Hattori sits down with Brian Wetherby of Onondaga Community College to spill some juicy insights and strategies.
Shiro and Brian kick things off with an interesting discussion on the evolving landscape of consumer preferences. No longer are audiences satisfied hearing from faceless companies. They want to hear from real users – people who’ve actually walked the talk. It’s all about authenticity, baby! Brian touches on the importance of being transparent and substantive in your marketing approach.
One of the major challenges Brian faced in his role was reigning in the chaotic use of multiple logos at Onondaga Community College. A strong brand guideline is crucial not just for consistency, but also for enhancing creativity. When everyone’s on the same page, the social media tasks of your team and student interns become so much more meaningful.
And speaking of social media, did you know it’s fast becoming a major search engine for students? Yup, it’s true. Brian emphasizes the value of organic, student-generated content. Leveraging social media platforms is key, and having student interns involved makes the content more authentic and relatable.
Brian also shares some cool future plans for OCC—customizable, self-guided campus tours. By embracing technology, they’re making it super easy and engaging for prospective students to explore the campus.
Traditional marketing methods like billboards and radio aren’t dead, though. In fact, they’ve had record-turnouts at open house events thanks to these classic channels combined with digital outreach. It’s all about knowing your audience and choosing the right mix of marketing channels—both new and traditional.
The episode wraps with a quick dive into AI in marketing. Brian highlights how AI can break down barriers and generate fresh ideas, and that’s something we all can get behind!
Curious to dive deeper? Catch the full episode and hear from Brian himself. You won’t want to miss these insider tips that could just be the game-changer for your institution’s marketing strategy.
Read the transcription
Shiro:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Higher Ed Demand Gen podcast hosted by Concept 3 d. If you like our content, please follow and subscribe to us on Spotify, Apple, and Google. My name is Shiro Hattori, your host today. And on today’s episode, we’ll be talking about what to do in the 1st year as director of marketing and new media. For the conversation, I have a perfect guest for the topic. I’m excited to introduce Brian Wetherbee. Brian is the director of marketing and new media at Onondaga Community College.
Shiro:
Welcome to the show, Brian.
Brian:
Thanks, Shiro. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.
Shiro:
It’s gonna be an exciting conversation. I do ask all my guests this. And so, Brian, tell me what you love about higher ed.
Brian:
I think really it comes down to to the to the vibe of it. You know? Higher ed is is very much a place of ideas. Smart people abound. You have the, you know, the student energy is a really wonderful thing to be around. You know, like, in a corporate world, sometimes there could be sort of a stagnant kind of feeling with the office and stuff and the same people. But, you know, in higher ed, we’re constantly cycling, students in and out, seeing how they grow, seeing what they accomplish, that kind of thing, you know, seeing what faculty is able to do. It’s really quite wonderful that way. And from a marketing standpoint, it’s just kind of a wonderful, you know, sandbox to play in because there’s so many different things to market and that we can touch on.
Brian:
I mean, you have your you you have the college, obviously, you’re marketing, but there’s also the athletics element. You know? There’s the service element. There’s the outcome element and all of that. So it’s, it’d be a real challenge to get bored marketing in this environment, I would say.
Shiro:
Absolutely. And, yeah, and not to mention, like, alums, right, and marketing with and working with advancement teams or alumni teams too. And so, like, it it’s it’s never ending. Right? Yeah.
Brian:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There’s a there’s a lot there.
Shiro:
That’s great. Well well, moving on a little bit more to the topics here today. I’d I’d love to learn a little bit more about, obviously, I hear the director of marketing role more frequently now in higher ed. But what is new media? Like, what what does that, entail exactly?
Brian:
It’s good good good that you asked me that question because, I’ve I’ve pondered it myself. You know? And I think new media is sort of a nod to the imperative for people in marketing to kinda stay on top of trends and assess, you know, not only what’s working, but what could work better, like, what what the needs are and how to fill them. You know? Maybe, I don’t know, maybe a a 100 years ago that, you know, since the Internet has been around, new media would have encompassed that. But now I think it’s, again, it’s just sort of an acknowledgment that, marketing’s at the forefront of kinda finding the best way to leverage, you know, platforms, technologies, messaging, things like that to, you know, to achieve our goals and, reach students. Because it’s really it’s kind of an arms race. Right? The the way people are consuming information and how people are reached is always kind of influx and changing, and trends happen hourly, daily, that kind of thing. And it’s the job of marketers to sort of, like, identify, what the viable channels are and to kind of, you know, to harness them, you know, on behalf of the of the schools they serve.
Shiro:
Absolutely. And I I do feel like since the pandemic and such a disruption in the whole world of of higher ed, like, I feel like this imperative to, you know, embrace new technology, new media has really, accelerated the last 2 or 3 years. You know? Like, I don’t think I saw CMO titles very often prior to 2020. You know? And so there’s just been a lot of change in in higher ed marketing specifically. So I like this title a lot. It’s great.
Brian:
I feel like in some ways, higher ed was late to the game with marketing. You know? I mean, we’ve talked and I think there was a lot of a sense that, you know, hey. We’re a college. We’re here, and and students will come. You know? And schools with, like, big athletics programs and things like that, they had some differentiation or, you know, big names, Ivy Leaguers, and stuff like that. But I think there are a lot of assumptions made, by other schools. And now they’re trying to catch up. You know? There’s a demographic shift happening, and, higher ed itself is just kind of there’s been some doubt cast on it.
Brian:
You know? That, time to graduation, what are the outcomes? Do I do I need to go to college to have a career, all of that kind of thing. So, I think for a lot of schools, it’s marketing is almost like a reaction as opposed to something that’s been kind of proactive for a while, if that makes sense.
Shiro:
Absolutely. Yes. Definitely. I mean, it’s something that I’m told every day. Right? We don’t wanna be reactive. We wanna be proactive. So I think, you know, it’s it it tailors to all of marketing teams, you know, what what good looks like. This is great.
Shiro:
And, you know, in terms of your role, right, I mean, you haven’t even been there a a technical full year. Right? You started in May of 2023, and I’m I’m I’m really curious. You you have a lot of expertise in higher ed already. Right? You you were with, many different schools for several years. And I’m wondering, like, what are some of the new digital pro approaches or new approaches you’re prioritizing in in that 1st year?
Brian:
The thing we’re really excited about and doing a lot of work in is how best we can, kind of produce and organize, student content. You know? Prospective students wanna hear from other students, and I don’t blame them. They don’t wanna hear from, you know, adults and professionals. And, the the group we market to is so marketing savvy, and marketing is so obvious to them. It’s like all of the old I guess, you call them what what, like, tricks and things like that that marketers used to use don’t necessarily resonate with them. They want authenticity. You know? They wanna hear their peers kinda tell them what their experience is and what their take is on it. And that’s, that’s really how they’re kinda forming their expectations and making their decisions.
Brian:
So the the approach we’re taking we’re talking to, like, CampusRail comes to mind. They’re a really cool vendor, and they help kinda produce, they they work with students to produce social content. And, you know, if you’re familiar with, like, current trends, social media is being used as a, basically, a search engine by, prospective students. You know, that’s how they use TikTok and stuff like that. They’re not necessarily using Google to find best engineering school or best nursing program. They’re getting on social media and searching through that, again, to find peers and influencers for that information. That’s the that’s the channel they trust the most. So I’m really on the lookout.
Brian:
I guess, again, that’s a nod to the new media side to, you know, what platforms are out there, who can help us kind of establish that. It’s not enough just to have someone on your staff who does social media. You really need to kind of get into your, you know, your student body, which is what we’ve been doing. You know, we have a social media program here at OCC, and, we’re lucky enough to have, you know, interns who are doing that content for us. And it’s really drastically more organic of an approach if you think about it because they’re being students themselves, they’re they’re in it. They know the the language. They know, they know the trends. It’s I think other students are far more eager or comfortable with another student approaching them, you know, to ask their opinion on what’s the best place to eat on campus or, what are your plans post graduation or why did you decide to attend, you know, OCC in the first place, that kind of thing.
Brian:
So it really makes sense. Then it and what it comes down to ultimately is how best digitally can we kinda capture it, organize it, police it, keep an eye on it, that kind of thing.
Shiro:
That’s amazing. Yeah. I mean, you know, student student led stories is something I I definitely hear a lot of, and I you talking about this reminds me of this, like, random Reddit thread. I I follow a lot of Reddit marketing channels, and there’s a, yep, it’s a rabbit hole, but there’s a channel that specifically, like, brings up old advertisements from companies from, like, the sixties seventies. And it was like a car it was like a car ad or something, and all the comments were like, oh, man. Like, this was the golden era of advertising, and, like, people were all nostalgic, right, and jaded and saying, like, oh, like, what’s happened to ads today? Can companies no longer do it right? And then some person was like, no. It’s not that companies can’t do it anymore. It’s just that the preferences of the consumer, right, in in your case, the student, have now shifted.
Shiro:
They don’t wanna hear from companies as much as now. So they wanna hear from the people using the solutions or product or, in this case, receiving education and going to an institution. So it’s not that, like, the advertisements are are worse now. It’s just that, the the way in which consumers wanna consume information and and be sold to has changed.
Brian:
Yeah. That’s a that’s a great point. You know? Because it’s that kind of referencing, like, the whole mad men era. Right? Or you think of, like, how commercials used to kind of hint that, hey. If you drink if you drink this this brand of beer, for example, you’ll be athletic and great looking and, or you smoke this, you know, like the Marlboro men, the rustic cowboy, you know, smoking cigarettes. I I don’t think people wanna buy necessarily at least people shopping for college don’t necessarily wanna buy, like, this sheen or, cosmetic illusionary, ephemeral take on what they’re act on the product they’re buying. I think the the very valid questions that people are asking about higher ed in terms of data and outcome and and things like that, that requires a really substantive approach. It requires authenticity.
Brian:
You know, we have to be a lot closer to the ground, in a sense. And I think I prefer that approach because I I’ve never liked to be overly you know? Because some colleges, they’re really big on, hey. Pursue your passions and and that kind of stuff, which is nice. I mean, you wanna be aspirational because the whole exercise or the, you know, part of why someone gets into higher ed is the pursuit of of an outcome or their dreams or they’re developing an interest, something like that. But at the same time, there’s, like, tremendous practical considerations that need to be acknowledged. And, yeah, to do that, you have to be, I think, a bit more direct and, again, authentic, you know, which is probably why the the, like, student contents and that that sort of approach works so well.
Shiro:
Absolutely. Yeah. And, I mean, it goes back also, I think it also goes back to, you know, where your institution is at. Right? Like, smaller scale, regional, like, what are the current pain points? Right? Because if you’re a school that has no enrollment issues, like, what do you focus on? Right? Your priorities are probably different. So I think that’s also a factor as well.
Brian:
Community college has a real compelling argument to make, I think, in the face of, like, some of those things that I mentioned where, you know, debt isn’t really the issue here at a at a community college that it would be, you know, at some of, like, our, you know, some of our big 4 year, neighbors here in Syracuse. You know? Nearly 70% of our students graduate without any debt at all. You know? 2 years to get a degree. If you’re going here for a degree, and and then you can transfer to, like, your to a Cornell or a Syracuse University or a Swiggo or you know, we’re we’re surrounded here. Upskilling is another big thing where, you know, we offer certificates and things like that for adults. So an increasing part of our marketing approach too is gonna be that, you know, that nontrad nontraditional students, they call them. People who maybe they already have a career and they wanna move up in it. They want to advance or maybe they wanna switch to something else.
Brian:
And our size kinda makes us a bit more nimble. I think it helping, students achieve that goals. And so that’s something we really we’re really leaning into with our marketing as well.
Shiro:
That’s fantastic. In in terms of I know in your in your short time there, you, have refreshed some of the brand guidelines. Right? How did you know that, like, that was one of the things to prioritize amongst all the other things that you’ve already done? And where did you start?
Brian:
Yeah. Well, I I had a great example because of, you know, the years I spent working at, Rochester Institute of Technology and kinda seeing how the marketing leadership there, how they kind of reined everyone in effectively because, you know, everybody wants, like, their own logo. Every program wants their own logo. Excuse me. Every club wants their own logo, for example. In in all of that kind of wild west sort of mix, you lose the fact that you’re marketing the college. Right? That whole hierarchy of of marketing and of information kind of just gets totally watered down. And I knew from within my first few days here, probably even during, like, the the interview process that that was an issue here because just walking around campus, I’m like, the college is being represented in 50 different ways.
Brian:
You know? The logo is being used in however someone decided to do it. It’s being included in other words. It’s like, it’s being, you know, whatever color someone I think kind of liked personally was, you know, they were using. And so the first kind of the lowest hanging fruit, in my mind was to kind of, police is a strong word, kind of bring bring back some some of those standards and guidelines. The college had them in place, for the most part. They just hadn’t really they’ve been kind of loosened, I think. And so, a lot of the work has been getting back to being very consistent with our logo and our colors and how we look, as well as, you know, brand language, photography, those kinds of things. And we we built a a brand portal on our site.
Brian:
We continue continue to work on that so that there’s a, a fixed place where we can send anybody who wants to it would it could be a vendor or it could be someone on campus who wants to do something in terms of marketing. They wanna open a social media account. A vendor wants to know what our, you know, color codes are, that kind of thing. So it’s sort of like a a a one stop shop, and the the greats one of one of the many great kind of characteristics of that is that it’s all in one place. You know? So someone, like, whose job is marketing, I can always kinda go there and see, like, what do we have? What don’t we have? If a faculty member requests something, for example, like, they want a branded PowerPoint or they want templates for for flyers and things like that to hang up around campus or or in the community. You know, that’s something we do. Then we have that consistency because, again, the location where we are, we’re surrounded by schools. Like, it’s really important that you don’t you don’t wanna look and sound like everybody else.
Brian:
You know what I mean? You don’t wanna have Syracuse University’s colors. You don’t wanna have, you know, Oswego’s colors or something like that. You wanna you wanna stand out. And, you know, people can’t really form a relationship with a brand if you kind of look like everything.
Shiro:
Mhmm. Or, yeah, or say too many things. Right? It’s like in a in an environment like yours, having those strict or strong brand guidelines allows you to differentiate yourself consistently. Is that right?
Brian:
Yeah. Very much so. It’s it’s kind of a it’s ex an exercise in discipline in a way. You know? And and I think some folks, at least initially, they they misconstrue that discipline as being kind of restrictive when it really isn’t. It makes everything better. And and when you work within the brand too, there’s there’s still a lot. There’s still a tremendous amount of creativity and flexibility you can, you know, you can add to it. And if anything, it’s it’s one of those ideas where sometimes limitations kind of enhance creativity and and, you know, and what you do with it.
Brian:
But most importantly, it puts the college at the at the forefront. So when people see the logo or the, you know, the colors or something like that, they know they know what they’re seeing. Right? It it resonates with them that way.
Shiro:
That’s fantastic. It’s it’s great to see the good work that you’ve been doing along branding has helped kinda unify and, yeah, unify your messaging.
Brian:
Yeah. Everybody’s like, we’re all swimming in this sea of, of marketing and and advertising and everything like that. I think it’s I I think maybe to marketers, those things kinda pop and stand out more. But I think a lot of those little steps, there’s, like, a cumulative effect it has for, you know, our, our audience or our kind of prospective student customer base, that kind of thing. Yeah. So I’m I’m excited to see how that develops further.
Shiro:
Yeah. And I I know that in terms of, like, hiring social media teams or interns, student interns, it’s really helpful because you can provide this brand guideline and be like, hey. This is what we stand for. Like, this is why we’re doing this. It it it helps attach their day to day tasks to something a little a bit high right? Higher level versus, like, I don’t even know I’m posting this student story today. Right? Right? And so it kinda ties and connects the dots to a a stronger, pillar that the the marketing and the school is trying to achieve. So I think it’s fantastic.
Brian:
It’s it’s easier for people to connect to something that is kind of fully formed, you know, and and defined.
Shiro:
It’s fantastic. Well, you know, in terms of what’s working well or starting to work well for you today, what else is was is working well for you? I think you just mentioned actually prior to our recording today, like, you know, open house is seeing some record numbers. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Brian:
I think unlike a lot of community colleges, we have this big, massive, beautiful campus on Hill. You know? We have we have dorms or residence halls. We have athletic fields. We have labs. We have, you know, places for students to hang out. We have dining and stuff like that. So, you know, the the best way to turn someone onto your school is to to have them come, you know, and visit it. And open house is an event that we’ve all been, you know, I I work with enrollment.
Brian:
It’s probably because my biggest, what, driver, partner here on campus. We’ve really been working to build out the event so that it’s something that, you know, has a seems like it’s has a production element to it. You know? Something that would resonate with students that’s fun and engaging and allows them to kind of, yeah, get a taste of the the campus vibe, meet professors, talk to students, see a bunch of cool stuff, hopefully, make some friends. So, yes, we’ve been advertising that, aggressively. You know, one of the one of the conclusions I came to, early on was that, you know, we’re a community college, but it seemed as if past marketing had kind of retreated from the community. You know? And everything was was digital. And, we’re in a market that still really you know, things like billboards and radio, they really work. They resonate with people.
Brian:
You know? And I started my career in in, in radio, and it seemed like it wasn’t gonna be viable for much longer, but it’s going strong here. You know? And we can reach, like, the nontraditional students. I I, you know, I referenced earlier. We can reach them in their workplace because they’re listening to it. You know? And people see a see a billboard, you know, and we have open house on there and the dates and pictures of students and things like that. And that’s great for the community to see because, again, we’re back in we’re there. We’re in the community like a community college should be. It’s great depth, but it’s also great, you know, internally for marketing for faculty and staff to see, you know, their what their their place of work kinda represented in such a, you know, big, bold, colorful way out in the community.
Brian:
So I think those marketing efforts, very considered marketing efforts, are working very well as are just kind of the the human efforts here at at OCC. And by that, I mean, you know, there’s a real dedicated team who are answering student questions and, they’re responsive to texts and their emailing and things like that. I think it’s one of the biggest strengths we have here. It’s something that the college is looking to continue to develop. It’s just that, you know, if you have a question, you you’re not a number. There’s there’s someone available to talk to you and help you work through things. You know? Like, financially, for example, that’s insanely daunting to anybody. But our whole idea and we market it, which is cool.
Brian:
But what makes I think the marketing work is that it’s authentic and that there’s an actual, you know, real real world component to it that we’re talking about where we will walk you through it. There are there are people here. There are sir you know, we are service oriented in that way. And I think that’s really just gaining steam. And, yeah, record record sign ups for open house. Kinda 2 weeks out here is fantastic. You know? I’m I’m excited to see what we’re gonna do in the next couple
Shiro:
Is that also, like is it are nontrad students or nontraditional students a part of that mix as well? Is that I’m I’m just curious.
Brian:
I don’t know. I think open house our open house, the way it’s currently configured is more towards, you know, high school students, and their parents too, because, you know, you can’t underestimate the, you know, the role that parents play in, in kind of the higher ed decision making process. So they’re part of it too. And the nontraditional outreach is something we’re also actively building out where we’ll have people out in the community, you know, talking to talking to businesses. We have recruiters who go out and, you know, visit high schools and answer, you know, answer their questions, talk to guidance counselors, all of that kind of thing. They might not have marketing in their title, but, you know, that’s that’s what they’re doing in a in a in a sense. Anybody representing the college, effectively is is marketing. Right? And I guess part of the job like, part of part of my job, my group’s job is to kinda make sure that they have the tools that they need to best represent the best represent the school.
Shiro:
That’s amazing. And and I like this point about, like, just the fundamentals. Right? Getting responding to interested parties quickly. Right? I think there’s some insight around, like, you know, we we prioritize this here at Concept 3 d. It’s like, if you actually reply to someone who requested a demo or a quote or contact us, you know, and if like, within the first hour, your actual, like, potential to, you know, do business or partner with that person increases, like, dramatically, like, you know, if you’re able to respond in a timely matter. And so I think, you know, just just the fundamentals of what people expect today. Right? They expect quick responses. And so, I love that you’re prioritizing that.
Shiro:
And it and it’s not like, you know, it’s something it’s not like record breaking new AI machine learning. Right? It’s just like the fundamentals, and it’s fantastic.
Brian:
Yeah. It’s kinda funny. Right? It’s it’s it really comes down to just people answering phones, right, and being attentive to, you know, again, to to text and things like that.
Shiro:
That’s great. And then just going to your part around knowing your audience, if you know that there is growth in your nontrad students, right, what are the channels they’re gonna be using? Probably not Snapchat and and TikTok. Right? Probably, like you said, traditional radio or maybe more traditional ways of consuming advertisements because that’s that’s where they live. So, you know, another good example there as well.
Brian:
Yeah. I think the mix the mix is what makes it work.
Shiro:
Right.
Brian:
It it makes it potent. You know? You can’t be digital. Digital is awesome for so many ways, particularly, you know, kind of the measurement aspects and the analytics of it. That’s great. But you have to market with the identity and sort of purpose of your company, in this case, school in mind. Right? And in this case, it really lends some traditional, channels really kind of makes sense for OCC.
Shiro:
That’s fantastic. Are there some other future technologies or things that you’re excited about in in your role specifically at OCC or, in general within the higher end marketing space?
Brian:
With concept 3 d, we wanna build out our kind of, on campus tour capabilities so that people have an option to do, like, a self guided tour if they can’t make it, like, on a on a Saturday or a weekday or something like that, and they’re they’re on campus. And and also to, kinda make customized tours. So if people have a specific interest, like, they’re they’re into nursing, right, or or music or something like that or auto tech or, fire or something like that, we can direct them more to those areas. May maybe they don’t wanna see everything. Right? They don’t they don’t need to see everything. If if they already if their interest is already sort of, like, fixed and decided, we want them to be able to kind of, you know, use their phones and kinda find their way around that way. So that’s that’s definitely something we’re we’re looking into.
Shiro:
That’s fantastic. Yeah. That wasn’t scripted at all y’all. I didn’t
Brian:
No. No. I’m I’m not being paid. I’m not be I was not paid,
Shiro:
I appreciate the shout out. That’s great. That’s awesome, mate. And then are there other things, like, are you trying to maybe look into embracing some new tech, like AI coming out and stuff? I know we use it internally for some copywriting now, just as a start rate.
Brian:
Yeah, man. My the the job I the jobs I had, like, at the beginning of my career aren’t really even wouldn’t even be necessary at this point with AI. You know, we we have a chatbot, like, on on the on the website. I think I think her name is Olivia or Octavia or something, but it’s it’s no substitute for for people. You know what I mean? Internally, I like AI because it it sort of removes the barrier of a blank page. You know, if you’re trying to come up with a concept or kick something off, it’s like that the amount of time that because I was a writer for for many years. I was a copywriter for many years. The amount of time you used to spend staring at that blank digital page and kind of engaging in self doubt, like, maybe I don’t have any ideas.
Brian:
Maybe this is, you know, and all that. It’s it’s either removed entirely by virtue of of AI or significantly lessened, which is great which is great. And I’m I’m sure we’re only scratching the surface on on what it can do, but it’s a great tool for marketing. Again, if you’re if you’re stuck, I mean, that’s a great place to turn to to get unstuck.
Shiro:
Well, yeah, this is this has been great. We’re just at about time here, but I’m wondering if you wanna share any of your personal plugs or OCC’s plugs here so that our our listeners can reach out to you.
Brian:
Well, I I mean, if you’re if you’re ever in Syracuse, swing by OCC for, you know, for a tour or, grab a bite to eat, come to one of our open houses. Personally, you could find me on LinkedIn. I’m always happy to connect and and chat. I love, I try to attend the, AMA Higher Ed Symposium every year, and meet a bunch of great folks doing, you know, doing great work at their respective schools and that kind of thing. So, yeah. Beyond that, I I I appreciate the the forum and you taking the time to talk to me and let me ramble on, answer some questions. And, yeah. I think, for all the the naysaying about higher ed and justifying it and all that stuff, I think higher ed is very much here to stay, and, I think socially, we’re better off for it.
Brian:
And certainly, you know, we need it in terms of, you know, business and industry and things like that. And I think it’s a wonderful place for students to come and kind of develop. Right? Kind of become that professional that they, they wanna be and and find a career. So it’s it’s cool to be a part of. It’s a cool place to come to work.
Shiro:
I could I couldn’t agree anymore. That’s a perfect note to end on. Thank you so much, Brian, again for joining us today.
Brian:
Thanks, Shiro. I appreciate it.
