When ISU advertising graduates enter the working world, they hope to have a glowing portfolio, and when one of your clients includes the governor’s wife, they might just have it. 

In Advertising 434, a new class added this semester that develops advertising strategies for campaigns, a group of students received the chance to hone their skills and “put their money were their mouth is,” by working with first lady Chris Branstad and her team to help revamp the image of her historic governor’s mansion, Terrace Hill.

Terrace Hill is an Iowa landmark with a full history; it had previously been sold to multiple historic figures before it became the home of Gov. Terry Branstad.

“(Terrace Hill) was build in 1869 by Benjamin Allen, who was the first millionaire in Iowa history,” said Diane Becker, administrator and assistant to first lady Chris Branstad.

When Allen lost his fortune, Terrace Hill was sold to his associate, Frederick Hubbell. The establishment continued to change hands until Gov. Bobby Ray and his wife, Billie, purchased it in 1970s.

“[Billie] was one of the people that spearheaded this project to turn Terrace Hill into the official residence of the governor,” Becker said.

Terrace Hill commissioners as well as the state spent the next two years fundraising and donating money in order to convert Terrace Hill into a museum and livable home.

“A lot of work had to be done in order for this to happen,” Becker said. “They were very instrumental in the Terrace Hill society and getting the house furnished and ready for people to live in.” 

Since Terry Branstad has taken office in 1983, and once again in 2011, the Terrace Hill committee, Chris Branstad and her team want to revamp the mansion as a way to reach out to the new generation.

“They see this need [to bring in new visitors],” said Christian Spendlove, senior in advertising and the media director of the group. “And they know that Terrace Hill is a place where they do a lot of events and social gatherings and know that they needed some help in the marketing and branding sphere.”

Spendlove, along with Allison Kaiser, Jennifer Deckard, Rudy Villafane, Carla Aversa and David Thoma are all seniors in advertising and a part of one of the four groups from the Advertising 434 class assigned to create a new advertising campaign for Terrace Hill.

Catherine Huggins, lecturer in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication and the instructor of Advertising 434, had worked previously for First Lady Chris Branstad as a branding consultant. She knew her students could gain some real-world experience in advertising from working with Terrace Hill.

“She figured it would be a good opportunity for her students and Terrace Hill because they want to (steer) their image more toward millennials,” Aversa, creative director of BlüPrint.

For the last couple of weeks, the group has worked with First Lady Chris Branstad and Becker under the name BlüPrint, a mock advertising agency complete with its own logo.

The idea of this project is to create a revamped image of Terrace Hill that resonates with the younger generation.

“We just want to add on and get a different generation to come [visit] Terrace Hill,” Becker said. “We have young school children and older people come and volunteer. Terrace Hill depends heavily on volunteers. We host five or six events a month and sometimes that wears [our small pool of volunteers] and everybody else out.”

Villafane, director of production for BlüPrint, said he believes that “a lot of [young people] don’t know what Terrace Hill is, so [the staff] wants to have more millennial volunteers. Their median age is like 50, so they are lacking the young aspect.”

For years, the governor’s mansion was one of the main sites that elementary and middle school aged children visited on field trips. As those same children grow into young adults, Chris Branstad and Becker question how to get older visitors through the door.

And it seems BlüPrint believes it has the answers.

“We have about five ideas in the works about what events we want to do to bring in new generations of visitors,” said Deckard, director of research for BlüPrint.

Because this is a competition, the group plans to debut its advertising strategy in front of Chris Branstad and her team in a few weeks.

As BlüPrint continues to look at the different ways of attracting more visitors to the historic landmark, Becker is excited to see what the students have planned.

“We’re just really interested in the whole thing and seeing what the results might be,” Becker said.

Becker said Chris Branstad is also excited.

“When Catherine Huggins had asked Mrs. Branstad if we would be interested [in being clients], we jumped at the idea,” Becker said. “We’re looking forward to what they come up with.”

Becker and Chris Branstad feel that outside marketing and advertising strategies are exactly what Terrace Hill needs.

“[The four groups] have different view points and being new to something, they can think beyond the box in some ways,” Becker said. “All these kids are looking outside of that, and I think that’s what’s so exciting and will bring some results that are unexpected but can be really great.”

As for the members of BlüPrint, they are just happy to work with the first lady and her team and use the knowledge they’ve gained from the last three years.

“We’ve taken all these different classes,” Spendlove said. “The creative class, the account services class, the media planning class and all these different things. And now we get to put our money where our mouth is and say, ‘What did you learn?’ and how can you use that in a ‘live fire’ situation.”

Chris Branstad plans to choose what advertising strategy presentation she would like for Terrace Hill in May.