Univ. considers dropping slogan

"Fear the Turtle" may have to fear for its life.

University officials are investing more than $1 million over a three-year period to come up with a fresh image for the university, possibly including a new slogan. They hope the new campaign, which they plan to unveil in the fall, will better encapsulate the character of the university. While administrators don't anticipate dropping 'Fear the Turtle' completely, students defended the slogan, saying it has become an integral part of the university's fabric and they would be sad to see it go.

"If this were a corporate setting, we would probably call it branding, and some of us do," said Vice President for University Relations Brodie Remington. "But there is a possibility for misunderstanding there: Some people may think of branding as slick words and that's it. We hope to come up with catchy words and phrases that are true to Maryland, not just spin, and whatever we say in the most attractive, appealing way, it has to be true."

The $1 million budget for the marketing effort, which began in the fall and picked up speed in January, will largely go towards airing the new slogan on television, radio and in print, officials said. University marketing has been polling students, alumni and faculty since September in order to determine the essence of the university's character.

Sample queries included "What comes to mind when you think of a University of Maryland student?", "What distinctive qualities do we have?" and "What do we stand for?" More recently, marketers have been meeting with focus groups of students and deans, including a meeting on Monday with new journalism Dean Kevin Klose, a former executive with National Public Radio.

"We're re-evaluating or revisiting our campaign, it's what you do in marketing every few years and in light of our new strategic plan, it's important to keep evolving," Executive Director of Marketing Strategy Deborah Wiltrout said. "We are hoping that over the summer we can do more work and hopefully have something new by the fall."

Six weeks ago, the university hired a Philadelphia-based marketing firm, Red Tettemer, to work in conjunction with the university's team. Remington described the company as "creative, outside-the-box types." Their contract, which is expected to last six months to a year, can be terminated or extended at any time, and the university will likely pay tens of thousands of dollars for their services, Remington said.

The Fear the Turtle campaign has been successful since its inception in 2003, featured television and advertising spots across the East Coast. But the university should reconsider their advertising campaigns every two to three years and at the most, every five years, Remington said. But, as of yet, university officials haven't given up on the old campaign completely.

"As [university] President [Dan] Mote has described Fear the Turtle, it's memorable, it sticks with you, it's creative, it's serious but it also allows for humor," Remington said. "If you look at the video and print pieces from other universities, 99 times out of a 100 they're all the same - shot of students on the mall, having a class, beautiful buildings, beautiful tress. ... How do you find what is special and distinctive about Maryland? And how do you do that in 30 seconds?"

But students, most of whom have known the "Fear the Turtle" slogan for their entire university careers, said the quirky slogan is part of what makes this university unique.

"I love the slogan," sophomore journalism major Samantha Link said. "It's endearing. What else is it going to be?"

Many students said the slogan is timeless and worried a replacement wouldn't find such a broad base of appeal.

"I like it. It's got a lot of bravado. It's manly," junior accounting and information systems major Eric Faber said. "Change it after I leave. It's my mascot."

The marketing team emphasized that they're not on a strict timetable for coming up with the new image, and noted they were not ruling out "Fear the Turtle" altogether.

"I don't think 'Fear the Turtle' is ever going anywhere - it's such an integral part of the university," Wiltrout said. "But how we evolve or integrate that as we move forward, that is a challenge."

Senior staff writer Tirza Austin contributed to this report. sticedbk@gmail.com