By Kristy Volmert | Staff Writer
Baylor’s latest commercial showcases 30 seconds of the authentic Baylor community in action to the tune of Forrest Frank’s new hit song, “Never Get Used to This.”
Published last Thursday, the video amassed over 6,000 views on YouTube in four days. Saturday night, it aired on ESPN+ while broadcasting Baylor’s first football game of the year. It was a double success for viewers as the Bears defeated the Tarleton State Texan Riders, 45-3.
Jason Cook, vice president of marketing & communications and chief marketing officer for Baylor, said the team added a series of authentic scenes featuring students in everyday life in the commercial. According to Cook, the scenes had value because they accurately captured student life.
“We want to make sure that there’s a high degree of authenticity in our videos and our commercials and our messages that we put out, so some of the scenes were captured just as part of daily campus life,” Cook said.
Cook said he and the assistant vice president of marketing, Karen Kemp, put a lot of thought into ensuring that Baylor was accurately marketed.
The video features an overview of campus, then shifts to clips of students engaging in several different unique traditions and activities, including freshmen running the Baylor Line and a group of students on a mission trip.
The series of scenes, Cook said, illustrates Baylor in all the ways it enriches the lives and character of its students. Including several shots of sports, academic engagement, spiritual life activities, traditions and students simply having fun, the video covers everything that makes Baylor the university that it is.
“We are, first and foremost, a Christian university. Second, academic excellence is one of our hallmarks,” Cook said. “And then, we are a mid-sized university. We’re not a small university, but we’re not a large public school either.
“And then finally, the fact that we play power for athletics, that’s our formula. If you look throughout the commercial, you will see those pieces come to light in a very real and authentic way.”
It’s the soundtrack of the video that really highlights Baylor’s most highly-regarded aspect—faith.
One important aspect that sets Baylor apart from other universities, Cook said, is that it is a Christian, faith-based institution, but it is not in any way exclusive to students of other religions affiliations.
“We’ve made a very concerted effort to tap into that intersection of music and culture. That’s a key way to reach [Generation] Z students, and it’s also a way that we can demonstrate that we are a faith-based institution and can have appeal to both Christian and non-Christian students alike,” Cook said.
The noteworthy thing about the newest commercial is this: The rising celebrity it features graduated from Baylor University.
Christian artist Forrest Frank, a 2017 Baylor graduate and Waco resident, released his debut solo album at the end of July. Rapidly hitting top rankings on iTunes, Frank’s new songs are reaching and appealing to listeners nationwide.
Frank was asked to come to the football field in McLane Stadium to film a few shots for the commercial—which featured his and artist JVKE’s new song, “Never Get Used to This.”
“The response so far has just been tremendous, and he just has this ability to reach young people where they are today. I don’t see any indication of him slowing down,” Cook said. “I think Forrest’s success and meteoric rise is going to allow us to reach students and families who may not have been considering Baylor to begin with.”
Baylor’s senior video producer Johnathan Davis was the lead editor for the commercial. Davis said that this project was the first time he would be responsible for editing a video that would air on national television.
“Jason and Karen put all their trust in letting me do this for them. It felt like a huge responsibility,” Davis said.“It was just a lot of fun to do. We’ve got a really good team of photographers and videographers in marketing and even in athletics.”
The marketing team performed a test in which they watched commercials from other schools, but removed logos, colors or any other indication of the school’s identity, Cook said. They were hardly able to identify any of the colleges. This really caught their attention and motivated them to seek new ways to set Baylor apart from the rest, or “stand out in the sea of sameness.”
“Baylor is such a special place and we take take great effort to showcase everything that makes Baylor so unique in a fun and vibrant way,” Cook said. “This year’s commercial seems to capture Baylor in ways that we are so excited about.”
