Colleagues-
Happy New Year! My hope is that you had a restful winter break and are feeling energized for the upcoming semester. Several things have occurred (will be occurring) to which I wanted to draw your attention:
GMAC Media Solutions
Over the course of the last two or three years especially, our schools have asked that GMAC provide more opportunities for them to get their brand and unique value proposition in front of candidates. That message was amplified in the 2018 School Satisfaction survey when schools highlighted their biggest challenge:
• Getting our brand recognized in all the clutter that exists
• Competing against bigger brand schools in our region
• Reaching new students digitally; Messaging to resonate with their needs
Please note that your requests for marketing support were not falling on deaf ears. We were trying to figure out how to best use our assets (mba.com, BusinessBecause, Hubspot) to help you solve this challenge. With that, I am excited to inform you of the creation of GMAC Media Solutions.
GMAC Media Solutions (GMS) is a unique set of marketing and advertising tools that will allow you to connect with prospects early in the exploration and decision-making process. Multichannel digital marketing (including mba.com) and advertising will allow you to boost awareness and demonstrate compatibility with target applicant groups, driving consideration for your programs. So, if you are looking to build your brand, generate leads, or showcase your program’s expertise- GMS might be the answer.
If you are interested in learning more about this new resource, please connect with me (swhite@gmac.com) or your market development manager.
MBA Reporting Criteria
Those of you who have been in the industry for a while probably remember the MBA Reporting Criteria. For many years, GMAC set the industry-wide standard for reporting admissions data to level the playing field across member schools. By complying with the MBA Reporting Criteria, schools allowed prospective students and rankings organizations alike to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges.
The MBA Reporting Criteria was directly linked to MBA Pathfinder- a data warehouse that fueled information on mba.com. When GMAC retired MBA Pathfinder, we also retired the reporting criteria; however, many of you kept it alive and have stressed the need to update it.
We will be kicking off a project to do just that beginning with a workshop at the Leadership Conference this month. We also anticipate engaging many of you for your feedback on how to revise the Criteria and create guidelines that fit current admissions realities. Stay tuned!
Introducing Martin Schuebel- Director, Market Development
My final bit of news: I am delighted to e-introduce you to the newest member of the Americas team. Martin Schuebel joined GMAC in November as Director, Market Development, Americas. He brings to us more than 25 years of business development, client servicing and management experience- most recently with the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Bloomberg NEXT.
In addition to serving as the point of contact for schools in Canada, Martin will be leading the market development school engagement team (your GMAC reps) in efforts to enhance our relationships with you by better understanding and serving solutions to address your needs.
Martin can be reached at mschuebel@gmac.com
I think that’s all for now! Here’s wishing you a great spring semester-
Sabrina
Sabrina White
Vice-President, Market Development
Americas & Europe
Americas Market Development Team