University PR by Committee: How UGA’s Rebrand Survived 18 Months of Bureaucratic Gridlock

If you want to know how not to run a rebrand, look no further than the summer-long slog at the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Eighteen months. That’s not a typo. That’s the actual time it took for a public university department to wrangle a new identity out of a decentralized mess of faculty, campus committees, and external marketing vendors. Meanwhile, the rest of Athens sweated through two summers just waiting for someone to pick a damn shade of red.

Here’s the dirty secret: universities, especially ones like UGA with a hundred sub-departments and a thousand egos, are allergic to decisive branding. The Franklin College process was less Mad Men, more Kafka. Feedback loops spiraled into infinity. Stakeholders multiplied like rabbits. Every word in the new brand guide needed six signoffs and a prayer. I’ve seen city council meetings with less dithering.

The end result? Sure, they got a new sub-brand eventually—and it doesn’t look half bad. But let’s not pretend this was a case study in best practice. If you’re running a decentralized organization and you want to NOT waste a year and a half, here’s the unsexy truth: you need one decision-maker with actual authority. Not a steering committee. Not a Slack channel with 45 lurkers. One grown-up in charge. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a logo that’s already out of style by the time it launches.

What’s the real lesson for the agency crowd and in-house marketers reading this from their beach rentals this August? Stop fetishizing ‘stakeholder feedback.’ If your rebrand requires a census instead of a decision, you’re just burning money and time. Set a deadline, ignore the noise, and ship. UGA’s marathon should be a warning, not a blueprint.

So, next time some consultant tells you ‘consensus-building’ is the key to rebranding, show them the Franklin College timeline. Then ask if they’re billing by the hour.