How do you Invent the Future?
It’s been six years since the university launched its brand with the “Invent the Future” tagline, but the future happens every day at Virginia Tech. Despite a university culture of invention for the purpose of creating a better future, knowing how that culture comes to life can be challenging.
The new “I Invent” promotional campaign launches this month to help faculty, staff, and students become more familiar with the university brand tenets and provide them an opportunity to share how they invent the future in their own lives.
This internal campaign is the first of its kind since the university’s brand launch in 2006. “It's part of our natural brand life cycle designed to help employees and students realize that inventing the future is not only our brand, but a way of life at the university,” said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech.
“Part of the strategy of the campaign is to change awareness levels of the brand to a way of thinking, speaking, and implementation,” Hincker said. “Faculty, staff, and students help invent the future in a variety of ways, whether it’s research, conservation, prediction, marketing, decorating, dancing, or volunteering.”
Besides reinforcing the brand among its internal audiences, Hincker said the campaign also will provide everyday examples of what it means to “Invent the Future.”
As part of the “I Invent” campaign, a photo booth will be placed at various locations around campus to collect pictures and comments about how faculty, staff, and students invent the future. The first venue will be Squires Student Center on Feb. 8 and 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Comments and photos collected will be posted to Facebook. Participants will be asked their interest, area of work, or major, and how they invent the future.
"Inventing the future is not just about pure research, but daily activities in a variety of different areas that create a different future for plants, dance, marketing, sustainability, or simply taking care of university accounting or the physical appearance of campus," Hincker said.
The campaign will run throughout the spring and use a variety of promotional tactics to create interest in the brand. In addition to receiving such promotional items as t-shirts and door hangers, employees will have an opportunity to nominate their colleagues for an “Illuminator” Award. Given periodically throughout the campaign, this award will recognize employee accomplishments that demonstrate inventing the future.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
