Advertising, Sponsorship and Partnerships

Owned by Melissa Chavira
Last updated: Jun 14, 2023
3 min read

Purpose

NMSU official and instructional websites shall not contain an endorsement of, nor solicitation for, any commercial enterprise, product or political affiliation.

Requirements

Paid advertisements are not permitted to appear on any NMSU website, consistent with its academic purpose. An exception is made only for select departments/organizations which are permitted by the University to sell advertising, such as The Round Up Student Newspaper and Athletics.

NMSU Entities may acknowledge contributors, donors or sponsors on web pages, including specially designated sponsors’ pages. Recognition of sponsors may include names, a brief phrase describing the business, and a link to sponsor’s Web sites. Sponsor’s logos or trademarks may only be included with the written permission of the sponsor. 

Advertising – Commercial (External Parties on the NMSU Domain)

To protect the educational nature of NMSU websites and to preserve their primary role in support of the mission of the University, commercial advertising is prohibited on the nmsu.edu domain. This standard is not meant to prohibit auxiliary-funded departments from providing appropriate information on their products and services.

Standard Criteria

  • Co-branding, hyper linked logos, link exchanges, and associate, affiliate, and referral programs are among the items that will be considered commercial advertising. Text links provided for informational purposes or as part of a comprehensive list of sources will not be considered commercial advertising unless the purpose is to promote a product or service.

  • NMSU does not run paid advertisements for non-NMSU offerings on its .edu domains. All colleges, departments, programs, and primary administrative divisions must identify a role responsible for regularly auditing and monitoring its websites and social media accounts for non-compliant advertising content. 

  • Online advertising for outside commercial entities must be approved prior signing an agreement. All advertising must be reviewed and approved by MARCOMM. Presentation of external content in the form of sponsorships must be reviewed and approved by the NMSU Foundation.

  • Embedded content often leverages third-party connectivity, functionality, sharing, or some other benefit. As a part of the terms of use, advertising or branding requirements are commonly imposed. Prior to implementing such code, approval must be received from MARCOMM. 

  • Advertising and branding elements delivered with embedded code must not conflict with NMSU’s mission, policies, or strategies. NMSU reserves the right to remove embedded code that presents advertisements or messaging that is not in compliance with web standards and guidelines or the integrated marketing and communications strategy.

Advertising – Paid (Advertising NMSU on External Party Domains)

University groups or individuals conducting external advertising such as search engine marketing, social media marketing, web display advertising, mobile advertising, ad servers, re-targeting, or engagements with external firms or agencies that offer such services is allowed but notice of services must be provided to MARCOMM prior to signing contracts or launching paid advertising campaigns. MARCOMM will serve as the centralized point of collection and reporting for paid advertising engagements.


Standard Criteria

  • All colleges, departments, programs, and primary administrative divisions must identify a role responsible for regularly auditing web marketing and advertising activities for all its sub-constituency journeys and campaigns, contracts, and service accounts.

  • Brand awareness, generic, and competitor-based pay-per-click or keyword collection campaigning, regardless of whether it is general or specific in nature, must be tracked. 

  • NMSU reserves the right to approve or deny the use and/or display of materials that are not in compliance with web standards and guidelines or the integrated marketing and communications strategy.

  • MARCOMM is responsible for holding an inventory of enterprise-level accounts for popular third-party advertising services such as Google or Meta (Facebook/Instagram). MARCOMM is also responsible for keeping a calendar of primary web marketing campaigns and for coordinating efforts for the largest positive impact. 

Sponsorships

Sponsors may be acknowledged on official University sites related to University-sponsored artistic or cultural programs, conferences, or special events.

Standard Criteria

  • Sponsorship acknowledgments must be supported by a written agreement between the sponsor and the University entity that specifies a limited term, typically concluding with the end of an event or series.

  • Acknowledgements may include the sponsor's corporate name or logo but may not include a street address, telephone number, e-mail address, product name or service information, call to action, or comparison.

  • The acknowledgement must include a disclosure such as, "The Artist Series acknowledges the support of these sponsors" and may not imply endorsement by the University.

  • Sponsors are not entitled to display University marks on their web sites without prior written consent from the NMSU Licensing Trademark team at MARCOMM.

Partnerships

Official University websites covered by this standard may acknowledge business partnerships for services provided at no cost that assist the University in achieving its mission; for example, access to an online research service or a search engine. Otherwise, all the provisions for sponsorships apply to partnerships, except that logos may be hyper linked to the service provided.