I’m pleased to share the final report from the external review of Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs (CMPA), which provides valuable services in a number of critical areas, including internal and external communications, media relations, website and social media content, marketing, branding, advertising, international student recruitment, government relations and community relations.
As principal tellers of McMaster’s story, members of the CMPA team are vital to protecting and building the university’s reputation, improving its rankings, sharing its impact and helping to secure public and private resources. Reviews such as this are important at the time of a leadership change. The report provides insights into the work and structure of CMPA’s team and makes recommendations for change which will guide the work of the team and inform the next CMPA leader.
The reviewers praised the skill, experience and work of CMPA team members, and made suggestions for improving decentralized reporting structures, simplifying budget responsibilities, streamlining the way issues are managed and communicated, resolving duplication in some areas, and modernizing the use of technology.
The reviewers, from the University of British Columbia, Concordia University, University of Calgary and Metrolinx, all experienced leaders in marketing and communications, provided a thoughtful and thorough analysis of CMPA’s operations, relationships, and contributions to McMaster’s mission. Their report is candid and paints a decidedly optimistic future for CMPA, providing both prescriptive and strategic advice for elevating its operations to world-class standards of excellence.
I extend my sincere thanks to the members of the review team for their thoughtful assessment and to all members of the McMaster community and our external partners who participated in this review. These contributions have been helpful for understanding how we can build on CMPA’s strengths and support McMaster’s ambitious priorities and direction.
The Office of the President is committed to working closely with the CMPA team and other University leaders to carefully review the recommendations and develop a thoughtful action plan. It’s important to note, as with all external reviews, that the panel’s recommendations are not binding on the university. They serve as helpful guidance and provide the basis for further discussion. Our first step will be to hire a new leader to oversee communications, marketing and public affairs. This will be moving forward immediately.
Sincerely,
Susan Tighe President and Vice-Chancellor
McMaster University is a global academic leader. The institution is nearing its 100th anniversary in Hamilton and continues to evolve, consistently landing in the top university rankings. McMaster has a long list of positive attributes including a recently installed new President, a deep history of research excellence and a dynamic student experience.
Based on the self-study and the interviews, there is a strong desire from McMaster leadership for Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs (CMPA) to build on its existing strength and grow to reach a world-class level, strategically positioning McMaster university as a global leader in research, learning, innovation and societal impact.
The interviews indicated that CMPA should strengthen institutional brand and reputation, advance strategic priorities, drive partnerships, and build trust with stakeholders across academia, government, industry, donors, alumni, media and the public.
The review panel was asked to evaluate the existing CMPA function and to recommend how the division can evolve to further support the University’s ambitious goals.
During the review, the panel heard several consistent aspirations:
While the CMPA team works hard to deliver on what it perceives to be its mandate and has done some exceptional work, many partners within the University are unclear exactly what they are doing and how their work supports the broader mission of McMaster. Given the absence of integrated strategic plans, this is not a surprise.
During the review, the panel heard reference to “One University” as an aspiration. This is a sound strategic goal for a globally competitive institution. The challenge for McMaster is that from a brand perspective, it does not function like this. While One University and decentralization are not inherently at odds, the fragmentation of brand ownership undermines any effort to publicly position McMaster as a cohesive institution. Multiple narratives, different brand positioning, uncoordinated promotion and inconsistent messaging do not give the impression of One University. If this is a goal for the campus, fundamental changes to brand management are critical.
It was clear to the panel that the CMPA division has undergone significant change since its inception. Not all those changes have been viewed as positive progress by campus partners, despite CMPA doing pockets of very good work.
The panel believes that this is what the entire CMPA group needs: a transformational leader who can catalyze a “sea change” that will bring the division and the university into the “modern era” of marketing, communications and public affairs.
The panel also heard several consistent challenges:
Global competition for students, faculty and funding have made the need for strategic brand and reputation management, government relations, and stakeholder engagement critically important for universities. Doing good work is not enough; institutions must actively and consistently promote themselves to increasingly fragmented audiences.
People expect brands to provide customized messaging and content that resonates personally. Whether the goal is recruitment, fundraising or brand building, the work must all feel connected and unified. Organizations that have multiple brands competing for attention dilute their impact and do not stand out among the competition.
Technology is an increasingly important part of a well-developed marketing, communications and public affairs program. AI, CRM, social platforms, data and analytics are all critical expertise for teams striving to connect and build reputation. Technology continues to advance at a rapid rate and organizations that do not adapt and adopt quickly will fall behind. Traditional marketing strategies are becoming less effective, innovation is critical, and agility is essential. AI and digital channels will continue to play larger roles in connecting with audiences, and CMPA will need to embrace these opportunities to break through the competition.
Government relations (GR) and stakeholder relations are also critical to achieving the goals of the university. Fostering deep connections with elected officials, key leaders, and external stakeholder groups is an important aspect of reputation management. Successful GR and stakeholder programs share several common traits, including:
This kind of program requires dedicated resources and a deep connection to the institution’s story. Finding opportunities to connect throughout the year, sharing information and seeking out ways to add value to the partner’s work all require sustained attention.
Overall, CMPA should have a global view of the university. Leaders in the division need to understand how the decentralized parts fit together and weave a compelling and consistent narrative that speaks to the wide range of audiences with whom the university must engage. This means being at decision-making tables, having a voice in key conversations and being supported in pulling together coherent and effective brand, reputation, and engagement management strategies.
To deliver on the university’s aspirations, CMPA must evolve from a service department to a strategic partner. It must develop strong relationships with the faculties and divisions and play a leadership role in bringing together their disparate objectives and tactics and build a cohesive strategy that serves the needs of all campus communities. Embedded and centralized units should be partners in this endeavour. Their work should be complementary, driving reputation, awareness, and engagement for the university, while achieving the localized goals of the individual units.
By focusing on the master narrative, overarching brand, and strategic government and stakeholder engagement, the CMPA team can provide an umbrella under which all other teams can thrive. It will also require a strong executive leader who is positioned appropriately within the University leadership team to make the changes necessary. In most U15 universities, the Advancement function (fund development and alumni relations) and the external relations function (marketing, communications, engagement, usually government relations) are separate executive divisions, often both reporting directly to the President. This allows each division to focus on its mandate, with the teams ideally working closely and collaboratively together.
Based on the review, the panel sees tremendous potential and opportunity for both McMaster University and the CMPA team. Change is required to achieve the ambitious goals heard during the visit. The panel is putting forward a best-practice recommendation and a phased approach to the changes. The phases will allow the CMPA team and the various departments the time to realign expectations, add or reallocate capacity, and build a collaborative plan. This plan also requires alignment from executive leadership to continually affirm the strategic importance of CMPA as a key enabler in helping the university achieve its goals.
McMaster must channel its energy, align under a unified brand and adequately support the marketing, communication and public affairs function to drive the results they are after.
Many communicators lauded the hard work and professionalism of the CMPA team. There seemed to be recognized and appreciated subject-matter expertise within ranking strategy, public affairs, storytelling, and media relations in particular.
The university’s success as a global academic leader, in rankings, in unique research capabilities (e.g. nuclear and health sciences), in student experience, and other areas offers an exciting story to tell which provides clear areas of success to leverage within the GR, communications and marketing function.
The panel was surprised by the lack of a Creative Services unit inside the marketing department. Creative Services traditionally includes visual identity guidelines, graphic design, digital design, video, and photography at minimum. It is the unit that brings the brand to life visually, and its work grows out of and is part of a marketing strategy. This is a best-practice model. At McMaster, most of this unit is currently embedded in MPS or individual areas have developed this on their own.
Most interviewees do not understand what Public Affairs does, and several senior leaders see it as an “island,” with plans and activities developed in isolation from strategy and leadership (particularly academic leadership). The panel concluded that although the PA team has done some exceptional work and is professionally strong, a new approach with increased collaboration and consultation is critical to ensuring alignment with One University. There is also an opportunity to more clearly distinguish between the unit’s government relations (GR) mandate and work, and its stakeholder/community relations mandate and work.
There were varying perspectives among leaders and communicators about CMPA’s role as a service provider (providing CMPA tactics/services at the request of business units) vs. a strategic partner (developing and deploying strategies to drive a business or organizational objective). Given the type of content/tactics produced, it appeared to the panel that the current functioning of the unit was within a service provider capacity.
The committee was impressed with the capabilities of communications leaders in several areas where it appeared there were strong shops with clear scope and capabilities. The leaders within these functions provide an excellent opportunity for CMPA to partner with high-functioning strategic leaders capable of driving the shared narrative of the university. They would be ideal examples for other Faculties.
Communications was generally seen as the most collaborative of the teams, with a willingness to work with and support outside units around content curation and creation (when capacity allowed) provided it aligned with existing content focus as defined by the CMPA group.
The panel heard repeatedly that issues management has consumed a growing amount of time, gobbling up capacity to be proactive and drive forward the institution’s core priorities. It was noted by both communicators and senior leaders that current processes are bureaucratic, involving (at times) more than a dozen people on email threads. The process is inefficient and distracting, leading to communications staff “constantly playing defense” at the expense of proactive work.
It was clear that while some teams have thoughtful content plans or shorter-term plans, broader and integrated marketing, communications and public affairs strategies and plans are required to inspire alignment across the system and support CMPA in how to prioritize work.
The current communications director has 12+ reports, many of whom are embedded. The structure is not sustainable in the long run. The panel was already seeing signs of drift by embedded communicators away from CMPA, possibly due to lack of perceived authority and attention.
It appeared that both CMPA and embedded staff viewed themselves as the strategic drivers for content with a perception that the other group would take their “overflow work” when they didn’t have capacity to tackle the tasks. The unclear scope seems to have caused some confusion, undermining the central group’s authority to drive key institutional priorities.
The current budget structure and allocations within CMPA are unnecessarily confusing and lack transparency. They do not allow for a true understanding of the monies being spent in each area, and do not allow the leader of each CMPA unit to take full responsibility for and manage their budgets. A significant proportion (likely most) of communications, marketing and creative services funding and capacity is not in CMPA, but rather spread across the university in other divisions and faculties, including resources for the upcoming campaign. While the current embedded structure provides an opportunity for broader coordination, there are many graphic designers, content specialists, digital strategists and other communicators who may be underutilized within the current decentralized model. In addition, there is an urgent need for net new marketing and communications support for Advancement as McMaster prepares to launch the public phase of its campaign in 2027. Note that the review panel has no insight into the Advancement budget or resources that have been already dedicated towards the campaign.
It appears that a significant amount of the team’s capabilities is in content curation rather than content creation. The absence of a broader marketing and comms strategy results in a great deal of work done by the team but with less impact, as faculties and administrative content may not always be strategically aligned. Further, the media team who create content for external channels is distracted by issues and dealing with the loss of a media relations staff member recently seconded to the President’s office. Without adequate central content generation capabilities, it is difficult for McMaster to tell its institutionally important stories.
The university is not consistently communicating its value or engaging locally. The university is better than many others and can be “the best,” but in the past, it was “a point of pride not to boast about achievements” (the “humble Hamilton code”). Locally, this has particularly been the case, with some feeling that the university has an opportunity to do more locally in terms of engaging local media around institutional stories, municipal politicians, and City of Hamilton and industry leaders.
The current brand was seen as positive by some and not positive by others. While it was acknowledged that the brand has been helpful in creating some visual alignment, there is an opportunity to refresh following the results of market research currently being conducted, and the launch of the new university strategic plan. It is best practice for brands and campaigns to be based on research, data, and strategy, not on individual opinions.
There are several areas where the lack of internal communications tools and business process is limiting the effectiveness and efficiency of internal comms work. The lack of an intranet, decentralized communications and a proliferation of newsletters create a cacophony that distracts from priority internal messaging and burns valuable resources.
Due to McMaster’s decentralization, many communications and marketing staff have inconsistent job descriptions and titles, causing HR issues such as title inflation, inconsistent salaries and lack of understanding among staff on how to advance. This inconsistency has impacted morale. There is also a feeling of career insecurity due to contract roles for some staff.
CMPA should form a hub for communities of practice across the university. There is an absence of consistent communities of practice, leaving embedded and non-embedded staff on their own. This absence can lead to duplication of work and poor resource allocation. In addition, the panel heard from the most skilled and professional non-embedded marketing and communications leaders that they would like more collaboration, more structure and plans, more guidelines and templates, more direction from central CMPA. There is tremendous opportunity here to create a much more integrated, strategic campus-wide approach to the CMPA function.
Technology is an increasingly important part of a well-developed marketing, communications and public affairs program. AI, CRM, social platforms, data and analytics are all critical expertise for teams striving to connect and build brand and reputation. At McMaster, digital governance and innovation, including web and CRM, is unclear, with CMPA, MPS and IT all playing roles that are not well defined. This was made evident by the self-studies, interviews, and an analysis of the Web Strategy 2.0.
The panel was surprised that although AI poses an existential threat/opportunity for communications, marketing, and public affairs, it did not come up at all during staff discussions and was hardly mentioned within the self-studies reviewed. As a result, it is unclear how the CMPA team and broader staff are prepared to integrate AI into their workflows.
The panel was also surprised by the lack of a strong web/digital unit inside the marketing department. The web in particular is strategic infrastructure for any university and a key vehicle for brand and reputation building. It cannot be handled in an organic and decentralized approach. Best practice is for marketing to include a web services unit that works closely and collaboratively with IT and leadership across the university to create a user-centred, brand-aligned web presence for McMaster.
Based on the self-study and the interviews, there is a strong desire from McMaster leadership for CMPA to build on its existing strength and grow to a world-class level, strategically positioning McMaster university as a global leader in research, learning, innovation and societal impact.
On CMPA’s purpose, the interviews indicated that CMPA should strengthen institutional brand and reputation, advance strategic priorities, drive partnerships, and build trust with stakeholders across academia, government, industry, donors, alumni, media, and the public.
In order to do so, CMPA needs to be formally given the mandate, the means, the leadership and the capabilities. In the Canadian context and particularly within the U15, world-class communications, marketing and public affairs functions have the following characteristics:
In terms of strategic capabilities, a world-class CMPA:
The main core capabilities include:
Create the position of a Vice-President (or equivalent) to lead the communications, marketing and public affairs portfolio, and rename the division. The panel recommends a division of External Relations led by a Vice-President or Chief External Relations Officer. The key to success is that the leader reports to the President and is a full member of the executive team.
The panel recommends three departments under the Vice-President: Marketing, Communications, and Public Affairs.
Keep the public affairs portfolio within the newly named CMPA and maintain its centralized structure.
Create a pan-university CMPA function that includes a co-ordinated decentralized approach for faculties whereby faculty-based marketing and communications teams operate as integrated extensions of the central hub; and a centralized approach under CMPA for other departments including administrative communications resources focusing on students, faculty and staff, and within this create an internal communications function.
Transfer international recruitment marketing from CMPA to the Office of the Registrar. After the new CMPA leader arrives, develop a new and collaborative partnership model which clearly delineates roles and responsibilities between RO and CMPA, ensuring that recruitment (both international and domestic) is aligned with institutional brand and supported by CMPA.
In the short term, until a new CMPA leader is in place, it is recommended that CMPA actively engage with Advancement and provide as much support as possible to the campaign; that Advancement modifies its campaign to align with the institutional brand and overarching narrative; and that Advancement begin to fill tactical marketing and communications roles as necessary to build capacity for campaign. When the new CMPA leader arrives, a new and more formal partnership and budget model, building on the model of collaboration and co-operation, can be developed between the heads of the two divisions.
Create a strategic marketing function and a data-driven institutional marketing strategy focused on brand building.
Consider merging content and creative resources outside CMPA (including MPS) with current CMPA content resources under a director, strategic content and creative services, reporting to the marketing lead.
Create a director position within CMPA dedicated to digital and web communications with oversight over the social media and web strategies and policies, working closely and collaboratively with IT, and reporting to the Marketing lead.
Announce a directive that all websites must be on MacSites immediately. We believe this has been accomplished softly to date (for new websites only) and funding will need to be considered.
Launch an audit of current CMPA processes and assess the possibility of embedding AI agents with the purpose of improving efficiencies.
Approve and implement the issues-management process provided by the special advisor.
After the new leader arrives, prepare a space analysis requirement based on the new CMPA configuration and proceed with bringing as many team members as possible under a single space.
Take a phased approach to rationalizing the CMPA budget and related budgets across the university. Start by reallocating the existing central budget into the correct “buckets.” After the new leader is in place, focus on the realignment of functions and budget within marketing and communications, and build an Advancement marketing and communications unit in CMPA. Finally, conduct an audit of marketing and communications across the university which can become the basis for rationalizing budgets, including creating efficiencies, eliminating work duplication, and identifying resources for new units such as internal communications.
Reputation Committee
Maintain the current committee structure and activities until the new CMPA leader is in place, after which it is recommended that a review of the governance, goals, strategy, and roles and responsibilities of the rankings file be undertaken.
Marketing Steering Committee
Pause the Committee until the new leader of CMPA arrives. The panel’s recommendation is to eliminate the committee at the appropriate time, pending the review of the new CMPA leader in consultation with the President.
President’s Advisory Panel on Community Relations (PACCR)
Maintain the current committee structure and activities until the new CMPA leader is in place, after which it is recommended that the work of the committee be aligned with a renewed community engagement strategy.