SU’s Newhouse School to create national collegiate strategy for urFooz social networking product

SU’s Newhouse School to create national collegiate strategy for urFooz social networking productMarch 20, 2009Wendy S. Loughlinwsloughl@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Fuhu Inc., a Web development company based in China and the United States, are collaborating to develop a marketing and advertising plan for Fuhu’s urFooz social networking product.

urFooz allows users to create a personalized avatar embedded in a baseball-type card that can be used on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. The card, or “Fooz,” contains such elements as a profile, links, feeds, videos and websites all in one place. Unlike most avatars, urFooz acts like a personal, portable microsite. Fuhu recently launched a Fooz for the band Guns N’ Roses in conjunction with the launch of their new album, “Chinese Democracy.” That site received more than 10 million hits in one week.

Newhouse associate professor of advertising Brian Sheehan, who is a member of the Fuhu advisory board, will manage the project. “Social networking and search are the engines that drive the Web, and colleges are a hotbed of Web-based social interaction,” he says. “It’s no coincidence that Facebook started on a college campus. The Newhouse School’s communications expertise and access to a gifted group of students, combined with Fuhu’s cutting-edge Web software, is a terrific match.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to work with Syracuse University and the Newhouse School,” says Fuhu CEO Jim Mitchell. “Who better to develop a collegiate Web strategy than some of the nation’s brightest college kids. We have high hopes for this project.”

Teams of students from Newhouse advertising courses taught by Sheehan and assistant professor of advertising Ed Russell were briefed on the project in early February. Focusing on interactive advertising and “big campaign” ideas, the teams are competing to develop a winning strategy that can be rolled out to colleges nationwide. The students will present ideas to Mitchell and Robb Fujioka, Fuhu founder and president, next month.

Newhouse students involved in the project include: Victoria Berdelle, Mark Bezerman, Jessica Boardman, Kevin Cahn, Jessica Case, Lisa Chan, Wei Ting Chang, Skyler Dobin, Sean Ellman, Matt Fiedler, Eric Flatow, Erica Gorlick, Alex Hachey, Paulina Han, Chris Hannmann, Sarah Harrison, Matt Hill, Yi Wen Huang, Coty Huffman, Hyomi Joeng, Dana Karson, Stephanie Kaslow, Lisa Klapper, Daniel Klebanoff, Amy Leiken, Kirsten Lopez-Palm, German Martinez, Daniel Massarsky, Emily McGuire, Molly McMullin, Vicky Oyomba, Dolapo Roberts, Paul Savaiano, Stacey Sherwood, Maria Sinopoli and Aakanksha Wadia.

For more information about the partnership, contact Sheehan at (315) 443-9247 or a href=”mailto:bjsheeha@syr.edu”>bjsheeha@syr.edu.