University Marketing and Communications

During FY25, we implemented a full-scale, in-house digital marketing campaign to enhance and advance UD's reputation. It garnered 49 million impressions, 681,072 clicks (1.38% CTR) and 26,059 conversions. Our TV commercial, developed and produced internally, aired in 17 national spots and supported digital advertising and social media campaigns.

To increase brand awareness and support institutional messaging, we created environmental graphics for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

The team continued its work on the University-wide web optimization effort. We hosted 23 roadshows in early fall 2024 to update units on our progress and share next steps. In late fall, we hosted 40 web discovery meetings to discuss goals and content needs for each area's website, including any legal and accreditation requirements. The team began building the website in January 2025. By the end of the fiscal year, we were approximately 85% done with the project, and were on schedule to launch the new site on Aug. 25.

The University's social media channels strengthen UD's overall reputation, build relationships with our audiences and play a critical role in issues management.

In FY25, we posted 848 times on the main University channels (Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok), and we responded to countless comments and direct messages. Across all platforms, we gained 10,166 new followers and had 581K engagements. Instagram continues to be a top-performer with 70% of total engagements and 47% of total follower growth. This year, social posts from UD Main led to 116.6K web sessions, resulting in 1,269 conversions.

Top posts included photo carousels of students; photos of campus; campus events; holidays/commemorations; timely references and trends (Chappell Roan reference, campus Pantone colors); and posts about rankings and awards. Top videos included the dads on move-in day, time-lapses of walking through campus, the McIntosh Scholarship reveal and Christmas karaoke in the golf cart.

On the Alumni Association channels, 427 posts resulted in 34.5K total engagements. Followers increased by 21% on Instagram and 6% on Facebook, with a total of 1,589 new followers across all platforms. Top posts on the UDAA channels included photos from community events, campus nostalgia, alumni awards and Reunion Weekend.

The media production team created 46 videos to support recruitment, advancement and reputation-building, and also captured a wide range of photography to support University Marketing and Communications.

Notable projects included videos for campus visit presentations, UD's 175th anniversary, Giving Day and Christmas, as well as videos featuring UD's community, health and wellbeing initiatives, UD Sinclair Academy and various student stories.

Through strategic marketing efforts, advancement marketing and communications helped achieve more than $49M in new commitments this year and supported the close of the We Soar comprehensive campaign, which resulted in more than $453 million raised, 21,338 new Front Porch members and 3,064 new volunteers.

Our team produced 205 email campaigns, 36 print projects, 80 blogs, five texting campaigns and 67 peer messaging campaigns. High-level initiatives included Donor Appreciation Week; One Day, One Dayton; Reunion Weekend; and two successful Academic Excellence Weeks. Key results include two giving day records broken for student giving and dollars contributed to the UD Fund, as well as more than 2,800 Reunion Weekend attendees.

In FY25, 44 faculty and staff experts contributed 32 articles to The Conversation. Those pieces attracted at least 1.6 million reads by audiences around the world.

In addition, UD expertise and research was featured in outlets including The New York Times, The National Desk, Washington Post, FOX News, Newsweek, Time, Associated Press and Scripps News. Outlets across the nation sought out our religious studies experts after the death of Pope Francis and during the Papal transition; those pieces resulted in at least 1.8 billion reads across news platforms.

University of Dayton Magazine continues to be a top source of information about UD and Flyer life for audiences of alumni, donors, faculty, staff, students, parents and community members.

UD Magazine website readership increased nearly 300% over last fiscal year, with more than 738K story reads from 358K readers, more than double the number of readers from last year. UD Magazine content over all channels had 3 million impressions, supporting the reputation of the University and the We Soar campaign. More than 74,000 households subscribe to the quarterly print magazine, and 42,000 individuals receive a digital subscription.

Top social post story was a feature on UD's two Saturday Night Live alumni. Top stories overall highlighted the Irish dance team, doulas supporting Black maternal and infant health, UD navigating changes in higher education, high school football coach Nate Moore '03, neighborhood houses with special names, an infant resident of Founders Hall, and Joseph, the father of Jesus.

To help meet undergraduate recruitment goals, the enrollment management marketing and communications team produced nearly 9 million emails, 52K text messages and more than 120 print pieces. Key messages focused on the value of a UD education.

The team also supported the launch of a new CRM system implementation, including a new admission portal, as well as a reimagined first-year student onboarding process.

An in-house digital campaign, targeted to prospective students and parents, garnered 56.9 million impressions, 627,751 clicks (1.1% CTR) and 47,856 conversions. While the yield campaign struggled and will be discontinued due to delivery challenges, overall the campaign outperformed FY24 in all metrics.

UD will welcome an intentionally smaller first-year class of ~1,600 students; the class is academically strong and diverse. Approximately 22% of incoming students are eligible for the Pell Grant.