Selling the university during halftime: How are university institutionals aired during NCAA telecasts framed in order to appeal to targeted fans?

A university’s institutional ad plays an ill-defined role in the greater marketing plan for the university as a whole. These institutionals have long been around, but yet little direct research exists about them, especially with regard to the strategic planning and execution of the ads. This study endeavored to fill that void with research addressing issues involved in creative decision-making with regard to the institutional ads. Since directly relevant research was scarce, additional research was gathered from a variety of sources regarding the elements presumably important in the overall university and athletics media and marketing environment. Points of inquiry included the role of sports programming for advertisers and the sports media audience, the cultural role of athletics on the university campus and the importance of athletics as a promotional tool. What little direct research there was regarding the institutional ads themselves was also considered. Framing theory was then reviewed as a significant driver of the advertising appeals utilized in typical institutional spots. As a result, seven research questions were formulated that would inform the direction of the primary research to come. A qualitative study utilizing semi-structured in-depth interviews was conducted over a month and a half time period. Participants represented one university from each of the ten conferences that make up the NCAA Division I FBS. The interviews were held over the phone, recorded and transcribed for accuracy. Participants discussed their strategic processes for planning and creating their institutional spots. A thematic analysis of the interviews was carried out by the researcher until eight distinctive themes emerged. Those themes were examined and supported by raw interview data in the results section.
Discussion was undertaken to delve deeper into the significance of the results. Conclusions indicated that perhaps surprisingly, the university institutional ads were created with a great deal of strategic consideration, produced to run primarily on television but to live longer lives on digital, social and other platforms, and were intentionally designed for optimal emotional impact toward drawing audiences to even closer connections to their universities. Limitations of the study were addressed and suggestions for future courses of research laid out.