I wrote about UF previous campaigns and videos in the past.
So, when Joe Hice, AVP for Public Relations and Marketing at the University of Florida, emailed me about their new Gator Nation ad campaign earlier this week, it didn’t take me long to check it out.
The TV spot (that I can’t show you yet unfortunately – but I will update the post as soon as it’s possible) will debut this Friday at Gator Growl and during halftime of the Florida vs. Georgia game on Nov. 1.
What I found really interesting in this new campaign is the fact that it has a user-generated component relaying the main theme of the TV sport “Remember when you became a Gator.”
On its companion website, InsidetheGatorNation.com, all the Gators (UF students and alums) are invited to share their own Gator story on camera by uploading and tagging it on YouTube.
When I check yesterday, several dozens of videos were already available and had been uploaded by a few YouTube users, so I asked Joe more about it.
We did a “soft launch” of the Remember When concept about two weeks ago. Working with our student PR agency — Alpha Productions — we’ve been out collecting Remember When stories from a variety of people. I think we have more than 80 videos posted and just as many written stories.
Here’s a my selection of some of those stories available on YouTube:
Tonight at the Gator Growl event, UF will also be introducing its mobile Remember When video booth as Joe explained in his email:
The mobile booth is a 30-foot box van with Plexiglas sides and back panels. We’ve created a bright orange and blue billboard-type ad for each side and the back and we invite people to come in and tell us their Remember When stories. The video studio is actually set up right inside the van. Pretty cool stuff. When we’re not using the van for video, it will be cruising the area with our billboards.
Go Gators!