UCLA has launched the newest version of its highly successful Optimists brand campaign. Themed “Momentum,” the new ads represent the fourth generation of the Optimists marketing effort and broke during last Saturday’s telecast of the UCLA vs. Virginia football game. The 30-second spot also will air during subsequent Bruin sporting events.
The new effort, which runs through next spring, is designed to raise awareness of the broad and deep influence UCLA has in California and the nation and around the world. It highlights the university’s ongoing role as an engine of opportunity and progress. It also demonstrates that UCLA faculty, students, alumni and friends are a community of optimists dedicated to solving the world’s problems.
This year’s campaign spotlights UCLA’s contributions to the world through remarkable people in the Bruin family. The TV spot highlights the university’s trailblazing efforts in fields ranging from brain surgery to robotics. The ad stars luminaries such as UCLA professor and world-renowned gang expert Jorja Leap; iconic basketball and life coach John Wooden; math prodigy and UCLA professor Terence Tao; famed astrophysicist Andrea Ghez; and accomplished alumni such as Seattle Seahawks linebacker Derrick Coleman and actor, writer and producer Tim Robbins.
The Optimists campaign launched in 2012 and initially focused on the accomplishments of UCLA alumni such as Jackie Robinson, Ralph Bunche, Agnes DeMille, Francis Ford Coppola, Vinton Cerf and James Franco. Subsequent versions highlighted the university’s diverse, dynamic culture and compelling stories of UCLA people and programs, from downtown Los Angeles to the far reaches of the solar system.
Ads for this latest campaign will run on Sunday morning TV news shows; PBS and targeted cable and satellite TV stations; and on local NPR radio stations and KNX news radio. (Like other universities, UCLA receives free TV and radio air time during telecasts of intercollegiate sporting events through the NCAA.)
The media mix also includes print ads in the Los Angeles Times, regional editions of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, as well as U.S. News and World Report, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Los Angeles Magazine. In addition, ads will appear on billboards and buses in Los Angeles, on websites and in on-campus media and social media.
See the newly redesigned Optimists website at www.ucla.edu/optimists.
