I was pleasantly surprised to see that the University of Maryland’s Fear the Turtle brand campaign is still being written about by the Washington Post 11 years after it was launched by UMD’s internal marketing team headed up by yours truly. It’s rare that any branding or marketing effort has the longevity of Fear the Turtle, but it’s particularly rare in higher education.
So what is it about the Fear the Turtle campaign that gives it such staying power?
One, it is authentic to the institution and not something that was imposed on it. Fear the Turtle was a term that came out of athletics years earlier and had lost some steam. It was reinvented to talk about the academic progress and momentum of the institution in a rather unexpected way.
Two, the brand campaign was developed in-house by a team that understood the UMD brand better than an outside agency. They embodied the personality of the institution and the community. They embraced it, bought-in and understood how to execute and maintain it for the long run.
And last, but certainly not least, Fear the Turtle is distinct. It is bold, it’s one-of-a-kind, and for those reasons, it’s memorable.
Over the last few years, Maryland has been evolving the brand campaign to Fearless Ideas to put more emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship. It’s been a slow evolution that plays off of the original Fear the Turtle campaign. This less abrupt approach may be what it takes to move away from the Fear the Turtle campaign, but as the Post writer says, “We’ll see if it catches on.”
I’d love to know what you think?
