The Marketer Bringing Texas A&M into America's Spotlight

Welcome back to The Friday Fortune! With the year winding down and the countdown to holiday parties and New Year’s resolutions in full swing, we’re all riding that “I’ll deal with it in January” energy. Take a break from pretending to work while secretly browsing gift guides. This is your moment of productive procrastination.

Each week, we bring you fresh insights from top CMOs, marketing legends, and bold strategists to keep you inspired, even as the holiday playlist loops endlessly in the background.

From standout brand campaigns to actionable end-of-year marketing tips, we’re here to make sure you close out 2025 on a high note. And yes, we’ll keep it fun because good humor pairs well with even better results.

Here’s what’s on deck this week:

• A sit-down with Texas A&M University's Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Ethan Braden

• 17 creative campaigns to know about today

• Spotify Wrapped for advertisers

📈 Marketer of the Week

If there’s anyone redefining what it means to market a legacy institution with the swagger of a modern brand, it’s Ethan Braden, Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Texas A&M University. With a career that spans Eli Lilly, Purdue University, and now one of the largest public universities in the country, Ethan is proving that higher ed marketing can be bold, strategic, and nationally resonant.

Ethan’s journey into marketing didn’t begin in academia. It began at Notre Dame, where an MBA internship at Eli Lilly turned into a decade shaping major brands across neuroscience, diabetes, and emerging markets. Reflecting on those early days, he shares that Lilly provided a great training ground, shaping both his strategic instincts and his leadership style.

His career took a huge turn when his mentor, Dan, offered him a number-two role with the chance to succeed him as CMO after two years. Ethan took the leap, joined Purdue, and 18 months later, right as COVID hit, he stepped into the CMO role. What followed was a period of explosive brand building, including leading both Purdue University and Purdue Global, and helping shape the school into what he describes as a marketing juggernaut.

But the next adventure came calling from Texas. Ethan remembers visiting College Station and instantly seeing what he calls “so much clay for us to mold something beautiful.” That “clay” included 150 years of tradition, one of the most passionate alumni bases in the country, and a brand with massive (yet unrealized) national potential.

At Texas A&M, Ethan has focused on elevating the university beyond regional fame. Early research revealed that Americans mostly associated A&M with football, sports, Aggies, and agriculture. Meanwhile, the university’s incredible impact in national security, climate, space, and scientific innovation was virtually unknown.

As Ethan put it bluntly, “I'd walk in every night into the hotel and I would see this giant sign and it said, ‘From the outside looking in, you can’t understand it. And from the inside looking out, we can’t explain it.’ And I've said a hundred times now, with all due respect, that’s bad marketing.”

So he rebuilt the system using a framework he calls integrated independence, a central brand team telling the enterprise story, while individual colleges tell their own. And the results were massive. When he arrived, A&M had just 336,000 YouTube views a year, with only one video ever passing 1 million views. But one year later, it has received 80 million YouTube views, 25 million on their new brand commercial, 90% of views coming from outside Texas, and 23 videos surpassing 1 million views. With a rebuilt comms team, placements also grew 75% year-over-year, with stories landing in 190 of the 210 major U.S. metros.

But ask Ethan what matters most, and he’ll tell you it’s the team. His approach to leadership combines rigor, creativity, and constant exposure to excellence. He sends his team to conferences, invests in education like Mark Ritson’s Mini-MBA, and pushes them to never settle.

Ethan’s Takeaway
Ethan’s advice to the next generation is both simple and profound:

“Have that curious, tenacious, long life learning of the trade. It was Cotler that said that you can learn marketing in a day, but it takes a lifetime to perfect. I want to instill that in the youth.”

To hear more about how Ethan is elevating Texas A&M’s national reputation and rewriting the playbook for higher-ed marketing, listen to the full episode of CMO Weekly.

🥠 The Cookie Jar

Crack open a handful of the week’s best marketing links—because good fortune favors the curious.

• Gap’s CMO on leveraging the brand’s Katseye success for the holidays. When K-pop meets khakis, holiday magic happens.

• San Jacinto College Cracking Open Doors to a Brighter Future with OpenFortune. The most unconventional marketing budget line item that actually worked.

• Why Sun Cruiser tapped its first athlete partner during her offseason. The best time to shine? When no one's watching.

• The top 5 rebrands of 2025—the bold moves that worked. When playing it safe wasn't an option, these brands went all in.

That’s a wrap for this week’s Friday fortune.

If you enjoyed the read, pass it along to your favorite marketer who could use a little extra inspo in their inbox.

Until next time, may your marketing be memorable and your cookies always be fortunate!

— The OpenFortune team