Masashi Fukada

Illinois M.S. in Advertising Branding and Website Project

Problem

The Master of Science in Advertising program at the University of Illinois is one of the premier advertising graduate programs in the country. Until recently however, the program’s branding has done a poor job of reflecting its strengths and identity. Communication surrounding the M.S. ADV program has lacked distinction and done itself a disservice in communicating itself as a brand and who it is catered towards.

For the target audience, prospective Master’s students, the first place they go to is the program’s website. Before July 2023, the Master of Science in Advertising website had not been updated meaningfully in years.

This website did not accurately convey the values of the M.S. in advertising program. In starting to re-identify and bolster this program’s brand identity, one thing was clear: the website was the first place to start.

The front page of the old (pre-July 2023) M.S. in Advertising website.
Key Skills

Brand Strategy

Graphic Design

Web Development

Research

Group Brainstorming

Approach

In February 2023, I was hired as a Brand Strategy & Design Intern by the Advertising department to undertake this website and branding project. I worked together with a team of faculty and fellow grad students to identify the program’s strengths and weaknesses to find out the branding strategy that we wanted to use with the program.

My Roles & responsibilities

Brand Strategy

Group discussion and individual research to uncover insights about our program, target audience, and competitors to give direction to strategic branding and communication decisions.

Website Creation

I was the main team member responsible for assembling the website.. Using WordPress, all layout and content decisions were intentionally crafted to match our newly uncovered insights and agreed upon brand strategy.

As a team, we first collaborated on various brand strategy exercises to better understand what made this program unique and how it compared to others.

3x3 Message Map
One of the first brand strategy exercises we did was a 3×3 message map. On a 3×3 grid, we brainstormed various features of the program and placed them, with the vertical axis representing “how good we are vs. competitors” and the horizontal representing “how much our audience (i.e. prospective students) care”.
Brand Archetypes
We discussed the program’s brand archetype and how we wanted our target
audience to perceive the brand. “Explorer” and “Sage” were two archetypes identified that we felt fit the new look of the program’s branding.

These brand strategy exercises, among other discussion and research, led us to insights about the program that could give the brand direction, starting with the new website and extending to all future communication.

Strategy

Interdisciplinary

While some other Master’s programs in advertising claim to be “interdisciplinary”, we felt through comparative analysis that this program actually backed that statement up. With a truly diverse faculty from different programs and a curriculum that borrows from many other fields (psychology, data science, politics, etc.), this was what we wanted to lead with.

Flexibility

By leveraging this concept of a truly interdisciplinary advertising program, an emphasis on this being a flexible and customizable program is important. The focus of this program is not sole; it’s not just a research program for prospective PhD’s, not just a strategy program, not just to bolster a portfolio. The interdisciplinary nature of this program bleeds into the curriculum and each student’s unique journey at the University of Illinois and beyond.

The Future of Advertising

For years, the identity of the undergraduate counterpart to the M.S. in Advertising program has been “First in Advertising”, as the University of Illinois was the first university advertising program in the country, founded in 1946 by Charles H. Sandage. As a different program, the M.S. ADV program should still acknowledge this history but also look to the future. Students in this program, fueled by their own intellectual curiosities, will shape the future of the advertising.

Being in charge of putting together the website, I used these insights that we developed to start creating content and building a new layout for the insight. For example, I designed a number of graphics to go onto the website, which have been since used in other communications (e.g. ads, flyers) for the program:

An interactive curriculum map for students to see how to customize their M.S. ADV experience.
An application checklist for prospective students.
An infographic outline the two tracks that students can take through the program: “Project” or “Thesis”.

Results

The new Master of Science in Advertising website launched in July of 2023, targeted at the students applying to join the Fall 2024 cohort.

“What’s next in Advertising?” and “At Illinois, “First in Advertising” isn’t just our past. It’s our promise” lead off the home page. These phrases encapsulate the identity of the M.S. in Advertising program; cultivating the professionals of tomorrow’s advertising world backed up by a substantive promise to rich, holistic, and interdisciplinary advertising education.

The top of the new M.S. in advertising website’s front page.
Click to see the full website!

Since my time working on the M.S. in Advertising branding and website project (February 2023 – July 2023), others in the department have continued to update the website and further establish the program’s brand identity through the insights and strategy that our team uncovered. As a now alumnus of this program, it gives me great pride to see the brand strategy and design work I was involved with will be continued past my time at Illinois. I-L-L!