When developing an advertising campaign for a school with one of the top marketing departments in the nation, Wharton School administrators have turned to an unlikely source -- an external advertising agency.
Wharton's Executive Education program plans to unveil a new ad campaign this month, and the plan comes almost exclusively from Philadelphia-based ad agency Red Tettemer -- not Wharton's own marketing professors and students.
Although the department offers expert resources, Wharton rarely turns to its own professors to market its programs. The department's theory-based approach, some professors say, makes little sense when it comes to practical public relations advice.
And although Red Tettemer worked closely with the Executive program's management department throughout the design process, Marty Hackett -- the program's director of marketing -- said the design was mainly produced by Red Tettemer.
"The creative component in my experience is usually out-sourced to an external creative ad agency. What we did was nothing new," Hackett said.
Some professors, however, Wharton is ignoring some of its internal assets by relying on outside firms.
"I think it makes tons of sense that we should be getting advice from our faculty in those areas," Marketing professor David Rebistein said. "I think it would [also] be a very valuable real world experience" for students.
Wharton marketing professor Jerry Wind, who has been a part of past Executive Education programs, said that this type of advertising outsourcing is normal, and that he was unaware of any faculty member ever being asked to assist in marketing one of the school's initiatives.
"We're not generally asked by Executive Education as marketing faculty to develop advertising. Our expertise is more about understanding concepts," Wind said.
"We don't ask the Finance department to manage the University's finances," Reibstein added.
Leonard Lodish, also a marketing professor, said that Wharton does have internal resources that have been used to assist in other marketing projects, but that turning to non-Wharton agencies is the general practice.
During the campaign's development, Michael McTigue -- Executive Education's director of marketing communication -- said that different versions were shared with the Executive program's faculty advisory board and its overall Executive Education advisory board, which is made up of of leaders in major companies.
The Executive program's campaign will include ads in print publications -- including Harvard Business Review, Chief Learning Officer Magazine, HR Magazine, The Economist and alumni magazines within the Ivy League Network -- as well as on online news outlets. Ads will also be placed on car-cards on Amtrak Acela Trains.
This is the first time the Executive program -- which pairs companies with Wharton faculty to work on professional development -- has worked with Red Tettemer.
Caroline Debrot of Red Tettemer said the agency is proud of its work with Wharton, which links the agency not only with one of the top business schools in the country, but with a globally recognized brand.
