Purdue University

Company: Purdue University, Marketing and Media, West Lafayette, IN
Company Description: Purdue University, Indiana's land-grant university, was founded in 1869. More than 38,000 students, from all 50 states and 130 countries, are enrolled at Purdue's West Lafayette, Ind., campus. Purdue's system wide enrollment is more than 69,000 students. At its West Lafayette campus, Purdue offers 7,400 courses in more than 500 undergraduate majors and specializations.
Nomination Category: Marketing Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Executive of the Year

Nomination Title: Teri Lucie Thompson, VP, Purdue University Marketing and Media

1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Teri Lucie Thompson was brought to Purdue University to move the university from
a news release and brochure shop and create a national model of what a strategic
marketing department at a large university should look like. She also had to do
the turn-around within the existing budget and with the people already on board.

She started with an in-depth evaluation of university needs, activities and
effectiveness audits of news, web and advertising. She also did a series of
interviews with existing staff and internal stakeholders. What she found was
widespread interest in marketing and branding coupled with little understanding
both at the stakeholder and marketing staff level and significant flaws in the
university’s approach to online presence and advertising. Market research was
almost unknown at Purdue. Very little of the university’s marketing activities
were centrally coordinated, few had any connection to top-level strategic goals
and there was no agreement on branding and messaging. It was hers to fix.

By December 2008, Thompson gained president approval of a reorganization plan,
as well as buy-in from top administrators and academic leaders, no small task at
any university. By March, she had reorganized 98 staff from four departments to
seven, all of which reflected the new priorities and direction: External
Relations, including the University News Service, Brand and Advertising, Online
Experience and Emerging Technology, Creative Services, Publications, and
Strategic Marketing. Results were immediate.

Thompson led a re-design of the university’s web site, adoption of social media
and improved search engine optimization. Web visits and interaction jumped:
Purdue’s Facebook site went from 6,489 fans in August to 24,739 by the end of
December. Focused on national and state media relations, the News Service
brought national attention to student success stories as well as research
breakthroughs, with audience reach for September to November charted at 11.05
million with 99 percent positive tone, as charted by Cision, another modern
improvement Thompson brought on. A broad-based brand differentiation study has
been embraced by the campus as the first articulation of what everybody thought
they knew, but didn’t, and work has started on a brand strategy approach, the
first-ever in Purdue’s history.
I don’t want this to sound too easy. University administrators and faculty have
been largely resistant to marketing for many years, including at Purdue, seeing
it as not fitting for a major institution. The demands of the day and a new
Purdue president differed. We compete for the best students and faculty from
around the world, for research funding and donor gifts, for reputation and
prestige that drives applicants and funding. Thompson’s changes have been deep,
and convincing academics to buy into the program has been a hard sell, until
they see how it helps them accomplish their goals.
As Elizabeth Scarbrough said in “Best of Class,” the November 2009 AMA article
on Thompson, “But Teri centralized the university marketing department and
helped people understand that one Purdue is better than many Purdues. … And to
turn over an office in nine months is unheard of.”

2. List hyperlinks to any online work samples, news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

All supporting links are in a folder at this address

http://eng.purdue.edu/jump/47b9c7

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

Teri Lucie Thompson became Purdue's vice president for marketing and media in
August 2008. As Purdue’s chief marketing officer, Thompson oversees the
communication about Purdue to both internal and external audiences in print,
photo, video, and via a variety of Internet platforms as well as branding and
advertising.

Thompson was vice president of marketing at Safeco Insurance from 2006-2008 and
worked marketing at State Farm Insurance from 1994 to 2006. Thompson is a
co-founder and board member of the Marketing to Moms coalition, a resource for
marketing professionals, and an expert on marketing to women.