Smith School Launches New Ad Campaign: The Smith Effect

The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has inspired and motivated young minds for nearly a century. Now, for the first time, the school is leveraging the impact it can have on lives and careers in an advertising campaign aimed at prospective students for its graduate programs.

Aptly called “The Smith Effect,” the campaign, created by the school's ad agency Carton Donofrio Partners of Baltimore, showcases the impact the Smith School experience had on part-time Smith MBA students Derek Shewmon and Deepa Janakariman. Shewmon won first prize in a Smith-sponsored business plan competition and eventually pitched his idea to some of the biggest names in the sport industry. Janakariman developed a project to help the poverty stricken nations of Indonesia and the Phillipines and eventually was awarded an internship with MercyCorps in Jakarta.

Shewmon and Janakariman’s stories can now be heard over the airways in radio commercials on popular radio stations such as WTOP and WRQX in Washington, D.C., and WJZ and WWMX in Baltimore.

Animated banners ads are also on display on numerous news websites throughout the region. Print ads are also scheduled for Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine. As the campaign progresses, more student stories are planned. The campaign began the first week of March 2011 and will last until mid-May and will continue again through the fall and winter.

“The Smith Effect uses an ‘umbrella’ strategy to promote its academic programs in one comprehensive ad campaign,” says John Hetherington, associate director for marketing at the Smith School. “Previously, we focused strictly on driving enrollments for a particular program, “ Hetherington said. “In this campaign, we pooled our resources and developed a strategy that we hope will communicate the high quality of the school—the Smith Effect – as well as help us reach enrollment targets for our range of graduate programs.”

SmithEffect.com was launched as a gateway to help prospective students identify the right program and easily sign up for an information session. All traffic from the new ad campaign is being funneled to this new website. Three new virtual tour videos of the part-time campuses – Washington, D.C., Shady Grove, and Baltimore – are a great addition to the main Smith website to help students visualize the Smith Effect.