EDUCATION

UW-Madison billboards tout homegrown talent

Karen Herzog
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
UW-Madison is launching a massive PR campaign across the state to illustrate how the university embodies the Wisconsin Idea.

If you've got something important to say and want a lot of people to see it, buy a billboard.

If you're the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working to win statewide support before lawmakers begin difficult deliberations about the next biennial budget, you blanket the countryside with billboards to convey the university's relationship with residents of Wisconsin, its economic value "to every pocket of the state" and the "boundless possibilities of what we can achieve when we all work together."

The unprecedented advertising blitz, dubbed Project 72, is funded by the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association. No taxpayer money or tuition revenue is being used, according to the university.

Billboards featuring the campaign slogan "Wisconsin & UW-Madison: Boundless together" and giant images of successful, local alums or individuals tied in other ways to the state's flagship campus are going up this month in all but three of the state's 72 counties: Florence, Forest and Polk. Print advertising will get the message out in those counties.

"In some cases, the county did not have any billboards; in others, the billboards were already booked," UW-Madison spokeswoman Meredith McGlone said.

Billboards were rented for 30 days. The university worked with alumni groups, colleges and schools on campus and community leaders to identify alums or key individuals with UW-Madison connections such as research to feature in each county. UW-Madison has 135,000 alumni across the state.

The campaign was primarily produced by private foundation staff, according to foundation and alumni association spokesman Vince Sweeney. To the extent that any state employees contributed, it was a function of their ordinary job duties, such as writing stories produced regularly and shared across multiple channels, he said. He declined to disclose the cost of the campaign.

UW-Madison hopes to make the case to Wisconsin residents and lawmakers in their home districts that the state "should reinvest" in the university, and not compound a series of state funding cuts, including the latest $250 million cut in the 2015-'17 biennium.

"It's not a secret that we were not happy with the last budget," UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a phone call with reporters Friday, adding that five of the last biennial budgets contained state funding cuts. She said the university has lost faculty members, took a hit to its reputation and had to reduce services and staffing to deal with the decline of state funding.

The conversation about the university's value to the state isn't just between the two ends of State St., she said, referring to the university at one end and lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker at the other end. "It has to be a conversation that involves the citizens of the state," Blank said. The university can't take for granted that all citizens of Wisconsin understand what a research university does, and its impact on communities, the chancellor said.

"We are very much looking forward to a collaborative conversation" with lawmakers, the governor and other stakeholders as the budget for 2017-'19 begins to take shape, Blank said.

The campaign's interactive website profiles a Badger alum or key UW-Madison connection from every county. Each profile is accessed by clicking on one of the 72 counties.

The campaign website notes that the cities and towns of Wisconsin have sent individuals to UW who returned to communities "to do great things."

"UW graduates have built companies, clinics, factories, farms, and ventures that have served people in Wisconsin and around the world. In turn, Wisconsin’s communities have given the university ideas, inspiration, energy, and essential resources," the website says.

Statewide campaign

Blank also has been traveling the state since she became chancellor three years ago, meeting with lawmakers, alumni and community leaders. The university also plans to air a television ad during Saturday's football game against Louisiana State.

Blank said the university also is launching a Faculty Hometown Engagement Project, sending faculty who grew up in Wisconsin back to their hometowns to speak to community members about the university's impact on the state. She didn't know how many UW-Madison faculty are Wisconsin natives but said faculty involved in research out-state also would be sent to events in those communities.

The boundless ties theme harkens back to the Wisconsin Idea, a principle voiced in 1904 by University of Wisconsin President Charles Van Hise, who said he would “never be content until the beneficent influence of the university reaches every family in the state.”

The billboards and print advertising celebrate the accomplishments of Badgers like community advocate Vincent Lyles of Milwaukee and veterinarian Patrick Warpinski of Brown County.

Lyles, who earned both his bachelor's and law degrees at UW-Madison, oversees the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee’s more than 800 employees and nearly 600 volunteers.

Warpinski is the owner and operator of The Animal House, a Green Bay animal services business that not only provides veterinary care, boarding, grooming and training, but also works with Paul’s Pantry to offer low-cost pet care for individuals in need.

The online profile of Harry Siegelberg of Outagamie County explains that he grew up on a Winnebago County dairy farm and was the first in his family to earn a college degree. He built a career at Kimberly-Clark in the Fox Valley, rising from the pulp engineering department to three separate vice presidencies at the papermaker.

The goal of the advertising blitz is to "socialize a partnership narrative," according to the university.

The university's cross-state PR journey aims to "shed light on some of the amazing people — alumni, students, and community leaders — who have strengthened the university and the state, county by county, story by story," the university said in a news release.