Ashley Alloway Makes Marketing Meaningful at the Wisconsin Union
A delicious menu item someone hasn’t discovered yet. An event that could provide someone with a new perspective. A student leadership opportunity that could change a student’s life.
Wisconsin Union Marketing Specialist Ashley Alloway works to close the metaphorical distance between people and the Wisconsin Union resources they might not otherwise discover. This is the heart of her marketing work: meaningful connections between people and resources they want or need.
“It’s easy to focus on what we want to say, but the most effective marketing focuses on what the audience needs to hear and what will motivate them to take action,” Ashley said.
Starting with People
Ashley earned a marketing degree from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, with an emphasis in experiential sports marketing. Her initial interest in the field came from its creative possibilities, particularly design and advertising.
As her experience grew, so did her understanding of what makes marketing effective and the many available marketing tools.
“Great marketing is about more than just making something look good,” Ashley said. “It’s about understanding what motivates people, telling a story and connecting with different audiences.”
Before deciding what a campaign should say or what marketing channels should be used, Ashley starts with fundamental questions: What are we trying to accomplish? Whom are we trying to reach? What does that audience need? Where is this audience consuming information? What might prevent someone from taking the next step?
Those questions help Ashley turn goals, events, services and products into marketing efforts designed around the people the Wisconsin Union serves.
“It’s rewarding to take a concept from an initial brainstorming session all the way through launch and then see people engage with it,” Ashley said. “Knowing that our work helps students and other visitors discover opportunities, events, or dining experiences makes the work especially meaningful.”
Finding the Opportunities
Ashley supports areas across the Wisconsin Union across many topics, including Wisconsin Union dining and hospitality services and events and opportunities offered by the student-led programming board, the Wisconsin Union Directorate.
“Marketing for Wisconsin Union dining is very different from promoting student organizations or leadership opportunities, so it challenges me to think differently with every project,” Ashley said.
For dining initiatives, for example, she has helped develop and coordinate marketing for new menu offerings, limited-time promotions and campaigns designed to help students and others discover dining options.
For Ashley, each project presents a marketing puzzle: the audience may be different, the goals change, barriers to audience engagement can vary and change, and timelines can shift quickly. Ashley enjoys figuring it all out, putting the marketing picture together into a strategic, cohesive, measurably successful effort.
“I enjoy taking a complex problem, understanding what’s driving it, and developing campaigns that not only look great but also produce measurable results,” Ashley said.
Being a Partner People Can Rely On
Ashley works closely with colleagues throughout the Wisconsin Union, from dining professionals to student leaders. She views those relationships as an important part of producing strong work.
“Everyone brings a unique perspective and expertise,” Ashley said. “Working with colleagues from different areas often leads to ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.”
Her approach to those partnerships centers on listening, transparency, communication and follow-through.
“I try to understand each partner’s goals, keep everyone informed throughout projects, and be someone people can depend on,” Ashley said.
Ashley uses project timelines and planning tools to manage long-term work while remaining flexible to respond to new priorities. When circumstances outside her or her partners’ control shift, she focuses on adapting and finding the strongest path forward with the available options.
Ashley also collaborates with communications colleagues to create integrated marketing and communications efforts that share a consistent voice and brand as well as that support shared goals.
Ask Ashley’s marketing and communications colleagues about working with her, and a theme quickly emerges: she’s remarkably good at staying calm and collaborative when things get complicated.
When priorities shift, timelines get tight or a project suddenly has a lot more moving pieces, Ashley has a way of seeing through it all to what actually needs to happen next. She asks the right questions, finds a workable path forward and keeps things moving.
Whether she’s untangling a complicated project or navigating an especially busy week, Ashley can usually bring levity to a difficult situation. It’s part of what makes her not only a thoughtful problem-solver, but also a colleague people genuinely enjoy having in their corner.
Staying Curious
Ashley sees learning as part of the job.
She keeps up with changes in the field through courses, webinars, articles and connecting with other marketing professionals, but she doesn’t believe every new trend automatically deserves a place in a marketing plan.
Instead, she experiments, evaluates and looks for approaches that make sense for the audience and goals.
One area she continues to explore is how marketers can use audience data to make informed decisions while preserving creativity and authenticity.
For Ashley, that balance is part of what keeps the work interesting.
“Marketing is always evolving, and I like staying curious,” Ashley said. “I like learning new tools, testing different approaches, and finding innovative ways to connect with audiences.”
Whether the challenge involves introducing someone to a new dining option or connecting a student with a leadership opportunity, Ashley keeps returning to the same starting point: the person on the other side of the message. And that focus helps turn Ashley’s marketing efforts from sharing information into creating meaningful connections.
