Behind the Scenes at the Union: Olivia Bratzke, Driving Results Through Creativity and Strategy
Olivia Bratzke’s professional journey at the Wisconsin Union is marked by creativity, collaboration and a sharp eye for detail. Her work reflects a deep commitment to making Wisconsin Union experiences for a lifetime possible.
Known for her optimism and problem-solving mindset, Olivia brings a wide-ranging skill set to every project, whether she’s improving long-term processes, supporting collective efforts across departments, or thinking on her feet in high-pressure moments.
Since beginning her career at the Union in 2022 as a facilities intern, Olivia has grown into her current role as marketing specialist, building a diverse portfolio that spans graphic design, event programming, and strategic marketing campaigns.
In this Q&A, Olivia shares how her work has evolved, where she finds inspiration, and what it’s like to market some of the most beloved events and destinations in Wisconsin.
Tell us about your professional journey at the Wisconsin Union.
I started at the Union in ‘22 as a Wisconsin Union facilities intern. I was placed there through my Bolz Center Arts Administration graduate program. After my graduate program, the Wisconsin Union marketing, membership and communications department wanted to hire me full-time, so I jumped on board as a marketing coordinator. Today, I am a marketing specialist.
Over my time from intern year to now, I started with taking on a few design and event challenges and have worked up to having an entire portfolio of design, event programming, and marketing campaigns. In my most current role as marketing specialist, it is primarily a portfolio of only marketing campaigns.
What does a typical day look like for you now at the Wisconsin Union?
Something I love about my job is that my day doesn’t look the same day to day. Since all of the marketing campaigns I manage are for events, there are always days I am checking on event set-up and progress.
I get to see if there are any behind-the-scenes-action that would resonate well with our audiences. I check in on Google Analytics, analyze how our ad sets are performing, and schedule our digital displays and email marketing.
I do love all of the in the moment parts of my job, being able to be on site so I can see what the audience is connecting with and studying what went well to help with marketing for the following year. This analysis is priceless, with some of our campaigns being low-budget or no budget.
You’ve played important roles in everything from complex event implementation to strategic marketing planning. What has been your favorite project on which to work, and why?
One of my favorite projects has to be Badger Bash. It is the project I first got the hang of in my intern year when I started here.
It is a project that has helped me grow immensely as an event marketer. It is an event I have now been able to produce from start to finish.
Being able to say I understand the logistics and operational components behind an event, and being able to influence the talent that comes to our stage shows, makes it all that much more fun to market it. It has helped us to make our social media ads more impactful by targeting audiences we don’t typically see and increasing foot traffic over the years I have been here.
We understand you attended UW–Madison. What was your major, why did you choose it, and how has it influenced your professional path?
I am a very proud double Badger! I got my undergraduate degree in graphic design and sociology, and my master’s degree in creative enterprise and leadership.
My undergraduate degree was always about making sure I could use as much of my creativity as possible.
I went to a small rural high school where graphic design wasn’t even something I fully knew existed, but I knew enough about it that I thought it would be an interesting starting point. I was raised by an academic, so a secondary degree was never something I questioned; I love to learn.
Once I earned my undergraduate degree, I knew I wanted to explore the business side of art more. I have always had a love for nonprofits, so the Bolz Center for Arts Administration was a great next step for me.
I learned business strategy, data analysis techniques, and the basics of starting and running a business. It really jumpstarted my understanding to holistically understand how marketing, programming and business goals all align and work together.
Where do you find inspiration for your creative marketing ideas?
I think the easier question to ask would be where don’t I find inspiration. Personally, I find inspiration from books, articles, trend reports, even from traveling.
But, at the moment, one of my biggest sources of inspiration and brainstorming is our students and interns. I love talking with them about the latest trends and collaborating to find out what phrasing might lead to the best call-to-action.
Having interns that are one of our key target audiences is beyond helpful when trying to be authentic to college students and the college experience.
What’s something people might not realize goes into your marketing work, past or present, at the Wisconsin Union?
I think something that often gets overlooked about a lot of my projects is the amount of research I do to set our events up for success. I enjoy collaborating with our programming team to try and identify pricing for our paid events or offering suggested changes to make an event more impactful with our marketing resources.
My role sometimes involves operational support with making sure we have sign placement or directional up to help guide participants; there is really no detail too small I don’t prepare for beforehand.
Many of the events you’ve worked on have sold out and exceeded expectations. From a marketing perspective, what strategies or approaches do you think have been most effective in driving engagement and demand?
With being a part of a public university, there are some limitations to our marketing options, whether it be from a budget perspective or another circumstance. For our student audiences, we have started to heavily lean into social media, specifically video content. We have an amazing social media strategist on our team, and I frequently work with her to identify the trending sounds, audios or visuals to help maximize our performances.
What is your favorite Wisconsin Union space, event or activity, and why?
I don’t know if I can pick just one favorite, so I will pick a favorite from each building.
At Union South I love Badger Bash. As a proud Badger, it is incredibly fun to watch families and friends of all ages come to get pumped up about Wisconsin Football. Seeing the genuine happiness at this event has always made me proud of what I do.
At Memorial Union, I have to say my favorite event is Winter Carnival, seeing how absolutely stunning our lake looks frozen over and glimmering with ice and snow will never get old. Watching people take their first steps in awe and delight on the winter ice is also another favorite. Such a simple experience but one that resonates with the students: to experience Wisconsin winter to its fullest.
I understand you do marketing work for many departments at the Wisconsin Union, more than would typically be assigned to a marketing account representative at a marketing agency. How many internal clients do you have, who are they, and how do you balance all that work?
Something that is unique about my role is that I work quite cross functionally with all of our units. The events I market typically crossover into our programming, facilities, and events teams.
I help market for three different units within the Union: membership, conferences and events, and Outdoor UW. I also manage all of the campaigns for more than 20+ annual events.
It is a challenge that requires time management and a lot of to-do lists. I also work incredibly closely with our project manager to make sure my projects are sticking to timelines.
What is a newer tool or trend you’re really excited about in the marketing space?
Earlier this past year, I was able to attend a conference where I was able to learn more about some upcoming events and trade marketing knowledge.
One piece that stood out to me was that a lot of event teams are working to have more real-time feedback and changes incorporated into their events. For example, if a conference topic doesn’t land well, they pivot the next day and add a new session or a new perspective of the topic that doesn’t land well.
It will be interesting to see how that changes the landscape for potential template or integrated platform updates people will need to create to meet the demand of more choose-your-own-adventure or real-time feedback events.
How does your graphic design expertise benefit the other aspects of your Wisconsin Union role?
I am someone who is really detail-oriented, and I love the storytelling a visual or a design can bring into an event, product or space. From that perspective, it has helped to shape my attention to detail within my marketing campaigns, really making sure that I can have a specific angle for my campaigns.
Would you share an example of your graphic design work of which you’re especially proud?
Two examples come to mind both from the Union and working in a freelance graphic design capacity.
The first is I recently worked with another Bolz Center alum to come up with a logo for his new symphony group. This new group is the Madison Gamer Symphony Orchestra. We worked together from the idea phase to final completion to depict a videogame control woven into a violin outline.
At the Union, I have been able to do some posters for UW Conferences and Events depicting all the beautiful event spaces the team offers, and its newer integration across multiple buildings on campus. It was fun to get to work with the UW–Madison brand and work on copy that supports the Wisconsin Union.
