Washington's Marketing Team Continues To Up Its Game

Kalen DeBoer has changed almost every aspect of the University of Washington's football program since he was hired. Outside of the on-field performance, his biggest accomplishment is giving his social media team a platform to thrive.

It's no secret that under Chris Petersen, Washington wasn't necessarily marketed to its fullest potential, so when DeBoer promoted Kasey Byers to senior director of creative services in July 2022, it signified a massive shift in the program. Since then, Byers has hired a team of two full-time video specialists, two graphic designers, and a director of social media to help him out.

“You have all this messaging, but how do you strategically plan to utilize all the assets together to convey the messaging of your program? I just felt we weren’t doing that [when I arrived in 2021],” Byers said to the Seattle Times' Mike Vorel in January.

After an exceptional first year full of movie poster references, hype videos featuring alumni narrators, and a Halloween prank, Byers, director of social media Hadley Heck and their entire team continue to up their game.

Even as Twitter limits how many tweets users can view in a day, there's no offseason for a marketing team, especially in the modern era of recruiting. They've also found a lot of fun ways to entertain recruits with original ideas like the "Purple Reign" umbrella which was such a hit other schools decided to try it out for themselves, and the 1937 Chevy Coupe used for official visit photoshoots.

The team has also done a great job putting their own Husky spin on projects like the throne seen in a lot of recruiting photoshoots and rebranding "MTV Cribs" as "UW Cribs." As the football season continues to creep up, it appears they've only scratched the surface of what's in the works.

UWFB Cribs ep. 2 🏡 Come hang out with the boys‼️ pic.twitter.com/rVZqP6bdvD
— Washington Football (@UW_Football) July 6, 2023

Toward the end of the 2022 season, the UW made a late push to get quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. The team created Penix4Heisman.com, which quickly became a one-stop shop for anyone looking to get a fix on anything related to the nation's leading passer.

With multiple projected first-round draft picks on the roster according to the national media, along with hype around the team to make a push for the college football playoff, a lot more social media content is coming to go along with it.

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