UMaine marketing chief leaving for Oregon job

After a year as the University of Maine’s image and marketing chief, Luanne Lawrence is moving on.

She plans to leave at the end of September to become vice president for university advancement at Oregon State University, which means she will be that school’s top fund-raiser.

“I’m leaving with a great deal of remorse,” said Lawrence, whose title has been executive director of public affairs and marketing. “I was very happy here. But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Lawrence – whose job was to promote the university’s accomplishments and strengthen its identity – has helped launch a number of initiatives that could have a lasting impact on the flagship campus.

She has had the freedom to be “a risk taker,” Lawrence said. “The university was really ready for someone like me who had high energy and lots of ideas.”

Under her leadership, UM launched its first research-based advertising campaign and crafted a new slogan, “You’re in a great place.”

The university also developed a framework for its first marketing plan and took a more focused approach in media relations.

Lawrence said she is especially proud of the new “Go-Blue” campaign that will begin at the end of the month.

As part of the advertising blitz, banners and posters will feature the names and faces of students, professors, alumni and staff members, as well as quotes about why they are proud to be affiliated with the university.

The campaign “is a way of taking anything there is to celebrate. With the presidential change, things can feel so uncertain, but this is a way to make people remember this is a good place to be,” said Lawrence, referring to the recent resignation of UMaine’s President Peter Hoff.

Although she initially had no intention of applying for a position elsewhere, after multiple calls from a search firm, Lawrence finally threw her hat into the ring because she was familiar with OSU’s president and because she had been impressed by the school’s progress years ago in improving the student experience.

Jeffery Mills, UMaine’s vice president for university advancement, said he was sorry to lose Lawrence. “We hate to see good talent go, but we’ll keep doing our best to move forward” and to continue the initiatives she started, he said.

UM is finalizing candidates for associate director of marketing, a position that has been vacant for about a year, Mills said. When that slot has been filled, the search for Lawrence’s successor will begin.

Under Lawrence’s guidance, UM conducted interviews with high school juniors and seniors in Maine and throughout New England asking, among other things, their perception of the flagship campus compared with land-grant institutions in other states, and what they looked for in higher education.

Using the survey results, UM created a series of advertisements for television, radio and mailings that touted the campus’ wireless capabilities, the accomplishments of its alumni and the courses it offers.

The ads ran mostly in the Portland region, where students were largely unfamiliar with UM, Lawrence said.

Another series of ads will run this fall and next spring. Then the same group of students will be surveyed to see whether the ads made a difference, she said.

Contained in the university’s first marketing plan, which Lawrence hopes will be implemented in January, are goals for such things as enrollment, endowments and even campus culture.

The goals, which the deans and vice presidents support, will serve as part of the campus’ strategic planning process, Lawrence said.

UM’s research professors made it easy for her to promote them, she said.

“Faculty here can talk to you on your level. I never thought I’d be so excited about oyster reproductive diseases,” she said. “But those things became exciting because of faculty’s passion for research and how they translated that passion.”