Get to know our members through our Member Spotlight feature! This month, we feature Greg Keightley, who serves as Assistant Director of Membership and Business Development for the WKU Alumni Association.

PMA: What is your educational/career background?

Greg: I graduated from WKU with a degree in Broadcasting. My career began as a freelance Producer Assistant for ABC Sports before moving to an advertising agency in Bowling Green. From there, I moved to the corporate marketing world in Nashville and than back to the agency business in New Orleans. Next, I joined Hibernia National Bank in New Orleans as Advertising Director. I spent 18 years in various roles while at athe bank including advertising, marketing communications, and regional expansion marketing. I joined Capital One Bank through acquisition, moved to Dallas and assumed the role of SVP, Director of Sponsorships for the bank markets in Louisiana, Texas, New York, and New Jersey. I returned to Bowling Green and joined the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center as Marketing Director. I spent a year in Louisville at the Kentucky Derby Museum as Marketing & PR Director prior to my current role as Assistant Director, Membership and Business Development with the WKU Alumni Association.

PMA: How did you get started working for the Alumni Association?

Greg: The Alumni Association position was presented and it provided me an opportunity to utilize my marketing skills in a totally new category. Working at WKU has always been of interest to me since my early days of working at WKYU while studying broadcasting.

PMA: What do you enjoy most about your role there?

Greg: It is exciting and challenging to learn new ways to apply marketing disciplines to an entirely new business category. There are strategies and tactics that I have used in the past that can be applied while also developing new approaches. But, most of all,  am working for an institution that I love and that has provided me the education to start my career.

PMA: What are some lessons that you learned throughout your career that has made you a better marketing professional?

Greg: Look at your marketing through the customers’ eyes. Don’t try to do advertising that is so beautiful that it misses the point of the communication you are trying to make to the consumer. I once has a boss tell me to tell our advertising agency “It ain’t art, it’s commerce.” Although I do believe that you can have a balance of both art and commerce in communication. Pay attention to the details. Think brand first. Your brand is not logos and slogans. Your brand is the promise you make to the marketplace.

PMA: If you could describe yourself in three words, what would those three words be?

Greg: Integrity. Professional. Fun.

PMA: What do you feel is the greatest benefit of joining PMA?

Greg: The networking. We all get busy in our day-to-day lives and it is good to spend a little time staying connected to peers in the industry when our paths don’t cross daily. Making new connections also.