George Mason University Athletics faced the significant challenge of reaching its target audience in a highly competitive marketplace crowded with popular collegiate and professional sports franchises, all with deep legacies and loyal followings. To differentiate Mason Athletics and engage the "United Nation of Mason" of current students, alumni, family, friends, and community neighbors, Mission developed a unifying new brand identity and a campaign strategy that worked for itself. Through effective viral engagement, we increased reach to this base exponentially, activating the fans as Mason’s greatest promotional asset. The heart of the identity and appeal focused on the hard work, determination, and undaunted pursuit of greatness by the Patriots behind the basketball program.
Brand Platform, Messaging, Design, Environmental, Advertising, Photography, Video, Digital Marketing
Sports, Education
George Mason is a gigantic school with a load of reserved pride. Activating that pride required an awareness campaign that celebrated the showmanship of the current men's basketball team.
We designed the schedule posters to be modular so that the team's players could be individually featured. Each player poster was then printed as a limited edition, making them collectable around the Mason campus. An unintended result was fans asking for post-game autographs from their favorite players, further connecting the team and the campus community.
The heart and determination of the Mason teams are an inspiration. There is truth in advertising.
In Division 1 basketball, season tickets sales are a critical metric of success. We created a multi-touch, integrated campaign that incentivized re-ups as well as new audiences.
Our first season partnering with Mason Athletics was considered a "reset" year, where both the team and the brand were firmly focused on creating a new foundation for future seasons to build upon.
As our agency of record, Mission has elevated our marketing and sales efforts with tremendous graphics, dynamic content, technology, and data-driven targeting and analytics. They are tremendously responsive and working with them is a pleasure.
