Colorado State University’s new brand campaign, titled and trademarked Find Your Energy, debuted at the beginning of the 2023 school year around a central unifying theme of university-wide excellence.

The brand, which encompasses physical branding, video commercials and pitch materials to attract prospective students and their families, will be the face of CSU for the next three to five years.

“It’s really cool for a couple of reasons,” Vice President of University Marketing and Communications Kyle Henley said. “Really, as you look at the place we’re in with students, there’s more competition from institutions than there’s ever been.”

“At CSU, we looked into the future — both how we want to maintain our position as a university of choice in Colorado,” Henley said. “And as we looked at long-term enrollment, … that’s helped us frame how we need to think about the way that we talk with those prospective students and their parents.”

According to a CSU SOURCE article by Henley’s team, Find Your Energy is based in part around the land-grant mission CSU was founded on, bringing equal opportunity for success to every country, community and socioeconomic state a prospective student may come from.

For the marketing team, Find Your Energy is partly about finding excellence in the individuality of CSU’s students.

“We’re an approachable institution; the thing that people see, and in that — and part of what I love about CSU — is that you can find their future here or find opportunities here in a whole multitude of ways,” Henley said. “Find Your Energy is a way to say that in a way that is distinct and understandable. No matter … what you care about or are interested in or you have a background in, you can find a space at CSU that’s going to engage you.”

Find Your Energy was a brand in development at CSU for nearly two years. Henley said his team narrowed the selection down to two main themes before doing focus groups with prospective and current students surrounding the brand that called to them the most. Find Your Energy will be the brand campaign used to attract prospective students in recruiting efforts and the brand that will unite the campus community.

Find Your Energy debuted Aug. 21 with the branding decorating the main stage for Ramapalooza during Ram Welcome week.

“We didn’t want to put something there that didn’t feel it fit (our university) and who (we) are,” Henley said. “Through that process, the themes come down to a central concept, and Find Your Energy was the one that encapsulated all we wanted to represent and incorporated some things from all of the concepts we pitched.”

Reach Allie Seibel at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @allie_seibel_.