The power of a campaign theme: Minnesota State Fair 2025

Another year of the Great Minnesota Get-Together has come and gone! For the first time the University of Minnesota developed a theme to demonstrate our value to Minnesotans through interactive exhibits, live events and opportunities to connect fairgoers with the University of Minnesota — all part of building a greater Minnesota, together.

United by a common theme across all locations

The University of Minnesota has such a large footprint at the Minnesota State Fair each year, but we lacked a connecting theme to show Minnesotans how we all tie together. 

This year the University of Minnesota featured a theme to connect our various locations across the State Fair. The theme, “Building a greater Minnesota, together,” was woven into locations, websites and T-shirts, aimed at encouraging visitors to engage with the University at each of the Fair locations. 

Incorporating the new theme gave our audiences the understanding that we’re all a part of one University of Minnesota, both through visuals and messaging.

This year we also featured a new Passport Program, a mobile-friendly, app-like experience that works in a smartphone browser, with a dedicated website and themed signage across University of Minnesota locations and exhibits. Individuals who visited five or more University of Minnesota locations were able to sign up for a drawing of prizes, including athletics tickets from the Duluth and Twin Cities campuses, Meat and Cheese shop gift cards, Bookstore gift cards from all campuses, tickets to Northrop, Arboretum, Glensheen, Bell Museum and others. 

Elevated engagement

Due to this effort, as well as connected promotions on social media and our news and events page, the University of Minnesota’s State Fair website had three times the number of visitors as compared to last year’s numbers. Additionally, the Passport Program page had a very strong engagement rate of 73 percent. 

This year’s coordinated State Fair effort led to thousands of personal touchpoints with Minnesotans as well. The University of Minnesota Central building distributed nearly 10,000 tote bags and thousands of mascot fans, hosted 71 hours of stage entertainment from a variety of groups, and featured exhibits from 32 organizations.

Enjoy a highlight reel from this year’s fair, and we can’t wait to collaborate with you all next year to make the University of Minnesota’s footprint even bigger!