Mascot makeovers: A tricky business

The recently revamped — and more recently discarded — Billiken mascot made its debut on Sept. 20. (Photo by Bill Barrett via SLU website.)

The occasional visual identity upgrade is part and parcel of university branding activities these days. It isn’t unusual for universities to revise their color palettes or refine the logos or other institutional symbols — although logo revisions can bring controversy and headaches to brand managers.

Friday Five: marketing, branding odds and sods

How to tell stories with data

Happy Friday, everyone. Here are some worthwhile reads about branding and marketing that I’ve recently come across:

A holiday season #throwback: Rebranding Santa

This tells you just about everything you need to know about the *Santa* brand book. (Click to enlarge.)

Note: Two years ago, the folks at branding firm Quietroom came up with something so ingenious that it deserves to be re-shared, year after year, during the holiday season — just like that “Yes, Virginia” letter or the incessant re-runs of those Christmas Vacation or A Christmas Story movies.

I’m doing my part to keep the spirit alive in an era of crass commercialism by republishing a post that originally ran on this blog in December 2013. It’s also a cheap and easy way to repurpose content.

Friday Five: We’re hiring!

Looking for some new marketing-related career opportunities? At Missouri S&T, we’re looking for five talented people to fill five roles. Four of these are new positions, and one is to fill a vacancy.

A behind-the-scenes look at Quietroom’s Santa brand refresh

Last year, those clever branding folks at the UK agency Quietroom unveiled the new brand identity for Santa. (For more about this, see my post from last year, Rebranding Santa.) Now, at long last, Quietroom offers a behind-the-scenes look at the process for developing the new Santa brand. Enjoy this tongue-in-cheek video.

Follow Quietroom on Twitter: @quietroomtweets.