Rutgers logo
Communicating about Rutgers
Rutgers logo
Communicating about Rutgers

University Communications and Marketing

About Us

About Us and Our Work

University Communications and Marketing (UCM) includes two major divisions—U-wide Comms and R-Comm—charged with elevating the public prominence of Rutgers. U-wide Comms is the universitywide communications and marketing department for Rutgers and includes the offices of University Brand, Marketing, and Creative Services and University News and Media Relations. It focuses on protecting the university brand, broadly advancing the university’s reputation, promoting Rutgers people and programs from all campuses, and managing initiatives and priorities of the university’s central administration. R-Comm is the communications and marketing department that focuses on promoting Rutgers–New Brunswick and Rutgers Health. While R-Comm reports centrally through UCM, the department is dedicated to advancing the AAU flagship and is guided by the priorities of its two chancellors. The alignment of these two divisions within UCM provides opportunities for collaboration, clarity of message, and support of a strategic focus on elevating Rutgers' prestige and reputation.

 

By the Numbers

Highlights of FY 2023

15.2 million
pageviews
Rutgers.edu
12,000+
image downloads
Rutgers Digital Asset Library 
58.2 million
social media impressions
@RutgersU
1.5 million
Rutgers 
brand impressions
2.7 million
pageviews
Rutgers Today 

Great Things to Know about Rutgers

UCM released a digital version of Great Things to Know about Rutgers along with the new printed brochure. This universitywide communications tool spotlights the people, programs, and achievements that make Rutgers a distinctive institution.

The digital version features robust content, including videos, a photo gallery, links to news stories, and expanded details that a print version cannot support. To engage users and provide us with content for future scheduled updates, we added an online form to the digital version for users to submit their Great Things to Know about Rutgers suggestions.

The new print version of this national award-winning Great Things series is also available and can be easily printed on your desktop as a downloadable PDF.

Great Things to Know About Rutgers 2022 cover

Rutgers Excellence Campaign

To advance the awareness of Rutgers’ excellence and support a presidential initiative to improve Rutgers' reputation, UCM launched the Rutgers Excellence campaign. Spotlighting the accomplishments and innovations of our scholars, our multichannel content distribution in FY 2023 reached nearly 2 million readers and resulted in 70+ million impressions. Our work continues in FY 2024.

UCM created unique pieces of Rutgers Excellence content distributed across multiple channels to about 2 million readers.

To reach target-specific audiences of academic leaders and alumni working in higher education, sponsored LinkedIn posts were placed.

Multiple digital and print ad placements ran in focused media outlets, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Science, and other outlets by target media markets.

Using cultivated lists to reach academic leaders and other higher education influencers, UCM sent direct emails featuring university accomplishments and initiatives, promotional content, and faculty and student achievements.

There were 44,372 pageviews last year to the Rutgers.edu/excellence campaign landing page from digital advertising, enewsletters, social media, and direct email clickthroughs to learn more about campaign topics and facts.

Proactive outreach to news media has earned the attention of 12 target publications, selected for their influence on higher education leaders. Rutgers has appeared 1,000+ times in these media outlets, with mentions about Rutgers' initiatives, research, faculty, and students.

To support and elevate our stories of excellence making it more likely that our audiences see and remember our messaging on multiple channels, UCM developed a series of videos that feature topics from across the campaign.

During the 2023 fiscal year, the campaign:
• Secured more than 70 million impressions
• Reached about 2 million readers
• Distributed 56 unique pieces of content promoting Rutgers’ excellence
• Earned over 1,000 mentions in the 12 most influential news publications
• Included over 100 paid ad placements
• Sent 57 direct emails

Rutgers Today

Rutgers Today is the universitywide news center promoting news, features, and videos with daily content additions and updates on all things Rutgers. 

Highlights of FY 2023

  • 2.7 million pageviews
  • 238 regular and special issues published
  • 350 stories written or edited

Distribution channels

Rutgers Today email

University Initiatives and Communications

UCM provides communications planning, consultation, promotion, and support for selected university initiatives, events, and programs.

To support the goals of greater institutional clarity and stronger brand recognition, UCM adopted the Rutgers R as the primary logo for the university is transitioning to a new system that reduces the number of primary Rutgers logos from three marks to one and facilitates consistently applied visual representation of the Rutgers brand for all our stakeholders and audiences.

Your Voice, Our Rutgers, a universitywide website, showcases a series of climate surveys to assess the experiences of faculty, staff, and students. Each survey is part of a larger effort by the university administration to use research-based assessment methods to gather data that will help the university realize opportunities to make Rutgers a better place to work and learn.

UCM began sharing posts to the @RutgersNB social media channels highlighting the news that Rutgers–New Brunswick was a top producer of Fulbright Scholars this year. The promotion of this achievement is ongoing.

16,936 impressions and 411 engagements on social media
• Includes coverage from NJ Spotlight News

UCM developed, produced, and promoted a comprehensive package that highlighted the top moments in women’s history at Rutgers and #PhenomenallyMe, showcasing six students on social media.

2,966 pageviews on Rutgers Today
629,524 impressions and 20,423 engagements on social media
91,878 views, 74,200 reach, and 2,720 engagements on Instagram Reels

UCM promotes the presidential initiative Rutgers Scarlet Service as it continues to expand and offer additional opportunities for all students to benefit from an internship experience. The unique program provides students with service experience through paid internships at nonprofit and governmental organizations.

UCM continues to support Rutgers–New Brunswick with the 15+ to Finish campaign aimed at current students and advisers, encouraging them to consider a minimum of 15 credit hours a semester to decrease time to graduation and lower overall student debt. The campaign was featured on digital screens throughout campus and in flyers. Also, UCM published social posts on the @RutgersNB platforms that coordinated with emails sent to students.

UCM created and promoted a multi-camera video, “Rainbow Talks,” featuring members of the Rutgers LGBTQIA+ community in a casual conversation about life, success, love, and everything in between.

50,000 plays on Instagram Reel and 300 views on YouTube
38,000 impressions and 825 reactions on social media
465 pageviews on Rutgers Today

Rutgers.edu

The universitywide gateway site to Rutgers, UCM manages this important channel to the Rutgers digital universe.

  • 15.2 million pageviews in FY 2023
  • 3.7 million visitors
A person viewing the Rutgers website on a laptop

University News and Media Relations

UCM tracks all news coverage of Rutgers and develops daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual news coverage reports for university leadership and governing boards that capture the breadth and sentiment of the coverage.

Highlights of FY 2023

849,000+
news stories citing Rutgers
9.4 out of 10
Rutgers news stories are favorably ranked as neutral to positive for the institution
45

Rutgers stories that were pitched and promoted

Managing Universitywide Social Media Accounts

UCM tracks, manages, and monitors the five @RutgersU social media accounts: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.

Highlights of FY 2023

788,690
total social media followers
58.2 million
social media impressions
@RutgersU channels
3,702
social media posts

Monitoring Rutgers across All Social Media Channels

UCM uses social media listening tools to monitor the conversations people are having about Rutgers across all social media to gain insights that inform our understanding of public sentiment regarding Rutgers, its reputation, and its overall brand.

1.5 million Rutgers brand mentions in FY 2023

Mentions are counted across over 100 million data sources, in 50+ languages, and across 25+ social networks and other platforms.

Social media icons

Issues, Emergency, and Crisis Management Communications

UCM coordinates with Institutional Planning and Operations and communication teams across the university to notify the Rutgers community of urgent issues, testing, and emergency notifications.

Rutgers Pride Campaign, #GreatThingsRU

UCM designed a campaign to deliver bite-sized institutional facts and figures to build pride among our strongest brand ambassadors: faculty, staff, students, alumni, and Rutgers supporters. Distributed through myRutgers portal, search.rutgers.edu results, and social media, we use #GreatThingsRU to frame the collection of weekly university facts, many correlating to major news stories, holidays, or events.

Group of Alumni

Rutgers Core Component Library

The RCCL is a multi-template, 65+ component building tool for websites that empowers university units to create brand-forward, accessible sites with an improved online presence and better user experience. It is managed by UCM, R-Comm, and the Office of Information Technology–Web Consulting Services (OIT-WCS). Using Drupal (and in the future WordPress), the component library will continue to grow to meet the web needs of the university.

Examples of Sites Created by Units Using the RCCL

UCM's Work Receives International Recognition

The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals honored UCM's work with the following Hermes Creative Awards, an international competition for the creative and marketing industry. 

Platinum

Gold

Honorable Mentions

Hermes Creative Awards 2023 Platinum Winner

UCM Videos Earn Prestigious Awards

TELLY AWARDS

The Telly Awards represent work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies, and publishers worldwide. UCM was recognized with:

Gold 

Bronze 

44th Annual Telly Awards

Photography and Other Digital Assets

UCM provides the Rutgers Digital Asset Library to store, organize, and share photos and videos with the university community. Providing access to thousands of images and a growing number of videos, the self-serve asset management tool is accessible to faculty and staff who can create collections and share and download photos and videos.

Highlights of FY 2023

  • 26,400+ total assets in database
  • 12,100+ assets downloaded
  • 3,700+ assets added
Old Queens Building with Banners