Web site links Gators to Gators around the world

September 12, 2006

Soon, accessing the Gator Nation will be a whole lot easier.

Beginning Sept. 16, University of Florida alumni, students and friends of the university will be able to upload their own personal video and photos related to their experiences at UF via goGatorNation.com, a new Web site that aims to highlight interesting facts about the university and its alumni in a fun and engaging way.

“GoGatorNation.com is designed to be a social network and to work in conjunction with the activities of the UF Alumni Association,” said Joe Hice, associate vice president of marketing and public relations. “It’s basically a Gator Facebook.”

Hice says highlights of goGatorNation.com are “orange-and-blue nuggets” that serve to spotlight contributions of the Gator Nation that many wouldn’t otherwise know. As people view the site, the “nuggets” will appear from within the video, from behind a photograph and in other unexpected ways.

For example, Hice said, goGatorNation.com will feature facts about the university such as the $518 million in research grants awarded to UF in 2006, as well as information about former students such as the two UF alumni who are now in the NASA astronaut program and UF graduate Robert Grubbs, who won the 2005 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

The site is an expansion of the Gator Nation campaign introduced a year ago to highlight a broad range of the university’s academic and research accomplishments, Hice said.

“We were looking for a way to get alumni and members of the Gator Nation even more involved in the campaign,” he said.

Visitors to the site also will be able to watch some of the Gator Nation TV commercials, listen to new radio spots, and chat with alumni and friends through a message board.

“The interactive part is the ability to upload your own Go Gator commercial. It’s the next step of what we started a year ago,” Hice said, referring to the Gator Nation campaign that included TV and radio commercials aired during athletic events as well as “The University of Florida is the Foundation for the Gator Nation” banners placed across campus. Also in July, the university introduced a new signature as part of the Gator Nation campaign.

A collaboration among three media companies – Fletcher Martin, 352 Media Group and the UF Digital Worlds Institute – the goGatorNation.com site design will be ever-changing, Hice said.

“We wanted to create something so it surprises every time,” he said.