Texas A&M University and ADWEEK are launching ADWEEK at Texas A&M, a year-round media, content and convening platform connecting one of the nation’s largest public research universities with leaders shaping business, marketing, media and culture.
The collaboration will make College Station a recurring destination for ADWEEK editors, producers, executives and community members, while extending into major moments across Texas, including South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, the PGA Championship in Frisco and Brandweek, ADWEEK’s flagship conference for senior marketers, brand leaders, creators and executives, which will take place in Dallas in 2027.
“We have spent the past several years taking Texas A&M into places and conversations where universities have not always shown up. This partnership allows us to do something equally important: bring more of those people and conversations here,” said R. Ethan Braden, vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at Texas A&M. “What ADWEEK is building with us is unusual in higher education, and we are fortunate to have this opportunity. It gives people a chance to experience the breadth of Texas A&M firsthand, see the impact of our work and better understand where we can be useful to them. Over time, that kind of understanding is how trust is built.”
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The partnership builds on a Texas A&M marketing strategy that has already pushed beyond the traditional higher-education playbook. Through original storytelling, national partnerships and unconventional platforms, including IndyCar and NASCAR, the university has increasingly approached reputation with the instincts of a consumer brand and media company. In July, American Caldwell ranked Texas A&M No. 6 globally for university visibility, up from No. 21 in 2024, and No. 2 among U.S. public universities.
Texas A&M believes the next challenge goes beyond visibility. Higher education does not have an awareness problem so much as an understanding problem.
“Major universities are widely recognized but often narrowly understood,” said ADWEEK CEO Will Lee. “People may know the football team, a ranking or a few academic strengths without seeing the larger enterprise behind them: the discoveries changing industries, the talent entering companies, the research addressing national challenges and the partnerships creating value far beyond campus. Texas A&M is an especially compelling place to explore that story because of its scale, distinctive culture and the extraordinary breadth of work happening across the university.”
It [this partnership] gives people a chance to experience the breadth of Texas A&M firsthand, see the impact of our work and better understand where we can be useful to them. Over time, that kind of understanding is how trust is built.
R. Ethan Braden
Vice president and chief marketing and communications officer
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M increasingly sees marketing’s role as helping close that gap. The goal is to make an extraordinarily complex institution easier to understand, not simply more visible.
Beginning this month, ADWEEK editors and team members will visit College Station to further explore the university, meet with faculty, students and leaders, and identify people, ideas and stories that could shape content and programming throughout the partnership.
Throughout 2027, ADWEEK will maintain a recurring presence in College Station, using the campus as both a setting and a source for stories about leadership, innovation, talent, research and partnership. The collaboration will include work with Mays Business School and the Arch H. Aplin III ’80 Department of Marketing and could create additional opportunities across areas such as communication and journalism, hospitality and agribusiness.
The aim is not simply to produce more content about the university. It is to create meaningful encounters between Texas A&M and people shaping business and culture, then turn the best ideas and relationships that emerge into journalism, video, social content and live programming for wider audiences.
“Texas A&M is an especially compelling place to explore [this] story because of its scale, distinctive culture and the extraordinary breadth of work happening across the university.”
A major early example will come March 4-5, 2027, with the ADWEEK University Spotlight: Texas A&M as a Force for Good — A Marketing Leadership Summit on Brand, Trust and the Future of Marketing in College Station. Presented by Texas A&M in collaboration with ADWEEK as part of the university’s 150th anniversary, the summit will bring some of the nation’s leading marketing and business executives to campus for conversations about the future of marketing, brand leadership and trust.
In conjunction with Mays Business School and its newly named Arch H. Aplin III ’80 Department of Marketing, the day-and-a-half gathering is expected to bring approximately 250 participants, including students, faculty, staff, former students and local business leaders, together with a select group of prominent chief marketing officers and senior executives. Many of the featured leaders will be accomplished Texas A&M former students, joined by nationally recognized executives from outside the Aggie community.
Programming will explore issues shaping marketing and business, including brand, trust, leadership, artificial intelligence, customer experience and culture. ADWEEK will help curate speakers and programming, facilitate the experience and extend its reach through editorial coverage and content before and after the event.
More than a conference, the summit represents an opportunity to bring influential national conversations to College Station while introducing business leaders and decision-makers to the breadth, expertise and impact of Texas A&M. It reflects a broader ambition to position the university not simply as a participant in important national conversations, but as a place where those conversations happen.
The platform will also extend across Texas. At SXSW, Texas A&M and ADWEEK will convene university voices, companies and industry leaders around ideas and partnerships. Around the PGA Championship in Frisco, the partnership will create another executive experience centered on conversation, relationships and content. Later in the year, Brandweek will take place in Dallas and become the platform’s largest public stage.
“ADWEEK is excited to make a Texas-sized move, bringing Brandweek to Dallas in 2027,” Lee said. “Texas is the epitome of brand. The very name conjures an established set of images in your mind, and yet its constant innovation and change leave so much to explore.”
Brandweek is ADWEEK’s flagship gathering for senior marketing executives and brand leaders, focused on the ideas shaping growth, creativity, culture and consumer behavior. Bringing the conference to Dallas creates a major new setting for Texas A&M to participate in the national business conversation while helping ADWEEK deepen its presence in Texas.
The strategy is organized around four ideas: convene, connect, create and amplify. The partnership will bring together people who should know one another, help build relationships, develop ideas and stories worth sharing, and extend them through ADWEEK’s media and event platforms.
For Texas A&M, the partnership creates new pathways to business leaders, potential collaborators and audiences who may recognize the university without understanding the breadth of its capabilities. For ADWEEK, it creates a distinctive recurring home at a major public research university connected to a broad ecosystem of ideas, industries and talent. For companies and executives, it creates new access to Texas A&M expertise across fields ranging from business and communications to engineering, technology, health, energy, agriculture, space and national security.
Texas is the epitome of brand. The very name conjures an established set of images in your mind, and yet its constant innovation and change leave so much to explore.
Will Lee
Chief executive officer
ADWEEK
The collaboration also works in both directions. Texas A&M will appear across ADWEEK’s national ecosystem, while ADWEEK will bring its editors, executives and community to Texas A&M. That is still unusual in higher education and creates an ongoing connection between university expertise, student talent and the broader business world.
For Texas A&M, the opportunity is to build on dramatic gains in visibility with equally ambitious gains in understanding, helping more people see why the university is relevant to them, where it can be useful and why it matters.
