By Emilie Holmes

What started as a billboard campaign for USU ended up winning first place in the 2003 "Best Campus TV Commercial Contest" last month.

A 60-second ad called "Space" highlights USU's involvement in space research and was called "the most compelling and powerful" by Elizabeth Scarborough, vice president of strategic marketing at Carnegie Communications -- the marketing firm that sponsors the contest.

"It is a bold and aggressive marketing statement that truly differentiates Utah State from every other university," Scarborough said.

Charles Thompson, USU's creative media director in its public relations and marketing office, said the commercial was the idea of a student and was put together in just 19 days in December.

The ad, which has run during every televised USU men's basketball game, has no spoken words and features USU students working on space projects, orbiting satellites and shuttles. A printed message across the screen says, "Utah State students send more experiments into space than any other university in the world."

"Space" was chosen over commercials from other schools such as Ohio State, North Carolina State and Wake Forest, said John DeVilbiss, executive director of public relations and marketing at USU.

"I was sweating," DeVilbiss said when he saw Ohio State's. "It was really good."

Carnegie announced Jan. 26 in New York City that USU's efforts had been the most significant. Four USU staff members went to Puerto Rico the first week of February as part of the grand prize. They were recognized at Carnegie's sixth annual Conference on Marketing Innovations while there.

"We had a good time swinging through the jungles," DeVilbiss said of the trip.

Thompson said this all started last summer when the university decided it needed a new marketing plan focusing on significant achievements -- similar to the University of Utah's advertising that zeroes in on its medical school. A three-year campaign was put in the works with the focus being on space research for the 2003-2004 school year.

The public relations and marketing office designed billboards advertising USU's space research. Ten were placed in the Salt Lake City International Airport, Thompson said, and were there for about four months.

Senior Steven von Niederhausern, a broadcast journalism major with an emphasis in electronic media, said he was in the airport and listening to music when he saw one of the billboards.

"I thought why couldn't there be a commercial," von Niederhausern said.

When he got back to USU, he "threw up a mock video" to see what it would look like. Thompson said they hired a former intern and USU graduate, Russell Dixon, to write the music for the commercial -- music similar to what von Niederhausern heard when he though to the idea.

"We couldn't afford $20,000 from New York for copyrights to the music we wanted," DeVilbiss said, "but Russ said he could do something like it. And, I think his was better."

Production for the commercial started Dec. 1, Thompson said, and finished Dec. 19.

"I would come down on weekends and late at night and these guys would be working away," DeVilbiss said of Thompson, von Niederhausern and some other who helped.

Von Niederhausern said there are 30 frames for every second of the commercial -- which means 1,800 total.

The university is using the commercial for development and recruiting purposes all over the nation.

"The [USU] bookstore wants it now," DeVilbiss said, "to rotate on their big screens."

Thompson and von Niederhausern are working on next year's commercial, which will coincide with the three-year marketing plan and focus on USU's water research.

"We've had the state of Texas come to Utah asking for assistance [with water]," DeVilbiss said. He said USU has done water research all over the world, including the Middle East and Central America.

The third year (2005-2006 school year) will focus on USU's education program, with emphasis on its Center for Persons with Disabilities.

"We're 45th in the nation," DeVilbiss said. "We know no one in Utah or the region who's better."

DeVilbiss, Thompson and von Niederhausern all said these kind of marketing strategies are possible because of the human resources at the university.

"We have an advantage other corporations and companies don't have," DeVilbiss said. "We have a huge human resource base. We hit on a gold mine."

The commercial, which cost USU $4,500 to make, would cost $30,000 anywhere else, DeVilbiss said.

"I really like working here," von Niederhausern said. "You're surrounded by good people."

The commercial can be seen at www.usu.edu/space.

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