Josh Russell, CMO at Cal State East Bay – Rebranding a Mascot

Josh Russell is a consummate communicator, having worked at marketing agencies and formerly serving as SVP of Community Relations at Bank of America. Beyond marketing, Russell has previously worked as a contributor to several professional sports blogs and penned his own children’s book. He now leads as the Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at Cal State East Bay, a Bay-area state university. 

Christian Banach sat down with Russell to discuss his latest role at Cal State East Bay, Russell’s thoughts on how agencies can collaborate effectively, and how to go about creating a new school mascot in 2023. 

Where to find Josh Russell: LinkedIn

Where to find Christian Banach: LinkedIn

Acting Aspirations to Agency Auteur 

Banach:

Tell us a little more about yourself and your background.

Russell:

I was born and raised in the Bay area, and my initial passion was that I wanted to be an actor. A colleague in high school got me into it, and it helped me come out of my shell—it was very transformational for me. After going to University of Arizona as a theater major, I realized that actors are not necessarily “my people,” but I loved the craft for the joy of it.

I shifted to media arts, though I maintain a passion for theater. After college, I started working at a marketing agency when I moved back to San Jose. My first job was very tech-focused, and I took to the consumer side of that work quickly. I still live in San Jose, and I have an 18-year-old daughter and an almost 15-year-old son, but it’s been a winding road for me.

Tell us more about your time at an agency.

Russell:

I loved the creativity aspects of it—the creative process always fueled me, so sitting in creative meetings, brainstorming, coming up with campaign ideas—I liked the agency vibe from that standpoint. But ultimately, I discovered it wasn’t really my passion. 

I spent time in the creative non-profit space, which I really loved because of the passion of the people who worked there. I also had a stint at Bank of America, which was great development, but felt it was hemmed in by the bureaucracy that comes with a large organization like that.

The Cal State East Bay Rebrand

Banach:

You’re in a new role now at Cal State East Bay, the Chief Communications and Marketing Officer—tell us a bit more about the school and your work there.

Russell:

Yeah, Cal State East Bay is in the Cal State University system and it’s an interesting branding situation because they changed their names 19 years ago now. They changed the name to be more reflective of the region, and I think that was a great move, but it means that alumni from 19 years ago or earlier have a connection to a school with a different name.

My role was a newly crafted one so I’m the inaugural person. They have never had a full-time marketing PR director, and I love being able to build that structure from the ground up. 

That was an insight for me I actually got when I hired a career coach—that process made me realize that I wanted to really build something as opposed to coming in and keeping the motor running.

Cal State East Bay is embarking on a brand refresh now, including a new messaging platform and website redesign. Most interestingly, we’re creating a new mascot. Cal State East Bay are the pioneers, and it was originally an astronaut, a “space pioneer,” in that sense, and it evolved to a more Yosemite Sam-type, a kind of gun-toting pioneer. 

What we’re exploring now is coming up with something that resonates with and reflects the community and region we’re serving. It’s an exciting process.

Banach:

What are your thoughts on where you want to take the brand now?

Russell:

I want to really seize this opportunity, and I’ve been able to align with leadership on a vision that doesn’t just try to “play it safe.” I didn’t want the brand to feel like some other Higher Ed institution, which sometimes feel like they have to “appeal to everybody” and so they end up appealing to nobody. 

It feels like it’s starting to come together, and our team feels like we’re confident that we have the materials and the personnel to create something that reflects the culture of the surrounding area and the students. 

Russell’s Agency Best Practices

Banach:

Can you tell us more about your in-house team and your relationship with agency partners?

Russell:

Sure, I have a great team, including two in-house graphic designers. It’s been great for me to work with dedicated designers for the first time. I have a social media specialist and an online marketing specialist who focuses on our website, a media relations person, and a photographer. 

I think that helps create a more organic workflow for us—being able to call someone into my office and iterate on something or pull together new, different elements for a campaign is valuable.

Regarding agency partners, it’s been great working on the college rebrand with an outside consultancy—someone to help with strategy and concepts. They help with things like focus groups for students and faculty, and what’s valuable about someone external for that is that they’re able to ask people questions and have them feel safe to share. 

Banach:

That’s interesting, given that Higher Ed maybe has a rap for maybe moving a little slower than other industries, but it seems like you’ve developed a nimble team.

Russell:

Yes, absolutely. The most successful partnerships I’ve had, whether working on the agency or brand side, have created a collaborative feeling around working together, like what I was saying about my in-house team. Something that isn’t “Ok, we’re going to meet every Tuesday for 40 minutes, the last 10 minutes of which is going to be spent telling you how much of our scope time we’ve burned.” 

Successful agencies close that “work distance,” and those partnerships work the best. Even feeling like I can just hop on a phone call for a few minutes if I have an idea for a campaign and brainstorm a little bit makes it feel less like that “I’m the client, and you’re the agency” structure.

The best relationships, whether it be with the consultancy I’m working with now or when I’ve worked at agencies, is when it feels you’re a member of the team, embedded within it and working toward similar goals. 

Banach:

Anything else you want to add?

Russell:

One thing I would like to add is that, throughout all my experiences working with agencies, working with Bank of America, and now in Higher Education, I love the idea of being able to cocreate a concept together with an agency, as opposed to having them go off, then come back and “present something to me.” 

Those “presentations” always feel generic to me—you’ve created this interesting concept, but it feels like you could drop someone else’s branding or logo into it, and it would essentially be the same thing. I think an agency should know what its expertise is, identify what the gaps in the brand might be, and try to leverage that in a tailored way, so it feels like you’ve never done this before with anyone else.

Banach and Russell discussed several other topics, including his foray into writing children’s books and his experience as a blog writer for the Golden State Warriors’ first media day.

Edited for Brevity