New AAM Playbooks and Campaign blueprints to support academic marketing
Academic Affairs Marketing (AAM) is launching a new set of Playbooks and Campaign blueprints designed to support thoughtful, consistent, and effective academic marketing efforts across NAU.
Together, these resources provide both strategic guidance and real-world examples—helping units plan, execute, and evaluate marketing efforts with greater clarity and confidence. They are flexible tools, not requirements, and can be used independently or alongside AAM consultations.
AAM Playbooks
Playbooks provide structured guidance and shared frameworks for common areas of academic marketing. Current playbooks include:
- Marketing 101 Playbook
A foundational guide to core marketing concepts in higher education, designed to build shared understanding around strategy, audiences, campaigns, channels, and brand alignment. - Visual Assets Playbook
Guidance on planning, creating, and using visual assets that align with NAU and college brands, support accessibility standards, and strengthen consistency across marketing efforts. - Digital Marketing Playbook
A step-by-step guide to planning, creating, and evaluating digital content across platforms, including KPIs, templates, and audience insights, with an emphasis on practical application.
Campaign blueprints
Campaign blueprints complement the Playbooks by showcasing real-world examples of integrated marketing campaigns used across Academic Affairs. Each guide illustrates how a mix of digital, traditional, and experiential tactics can work together to support awareness, engagement, and action for a specific academic initiative.
Rather than providing prescriptive plans, Campaign blueprints help units understand:
- How campaigns are structured
- Why certain tactics are used
- How approaches can be adapted based on goals, audiences, and available resources
When to use a Campaign blueprint
Campaign blueprints are especially useful when you want to explore how a campaign might come together before building a detailed plan. They are helpful for:
- Seeing examples of integrated marketing campaigns
- Understanding how different channels support different stages of engagement
- Exploring campaign ideas before committing resources
- Adapting proven approaches for your own programs or initiatives
How Playbooks and Campaign blueprints work together
Playbooks and Quick Start Guides serve different—but complementary—purposes.
- Campaign blueprints show what a campaign can look like in practice.
- Playbooks provide step-by-step guidance for planning, execution, and measurement across platforms.
Many teams begin with a Campaign blueprint to understand campaign structure, then use a Playbook to build, execute, and assess their own initiative.
Both resources are available through the AAM website and will continue to evolve as additional guidance and examples are developed.