Russell Houghtaling was appointed to lead Oregon State’s newly created in-house creative agency in January of 2016, becoming the country's first Associate Athletic Director for Ideation.
The Ideation team, the first of its kind at the college athletics level, is an innovative and ambitious in-house creative ad agency for Oregon State Athletics. Its charge will be to improve and increase awareness about the Oregon State brand, its teams, student-athletes and coaches as well as Beaver Nation.
Houghtaling launched the "Best College Town in the Pac-12" campaign, putting one of Oregon State's best assets – Corvallis – at the forefront of its messaging. He also oversaw the reorganization of the social media strategy and video department structure. Under his leadership, "Common Threads: A Season with Oregon State Women's Basketball" became the first program produced entirely by an institution to air on Pac-12 Networks.
"From my perspective, there is no better place to live in America than Corvallis, and no athletic department so poised for ascent as Oregon State," Houghtaling said.
Houghtaling is tasked with spearheading and managing the Ideation team. The team will aggressively market Oregon State to fans and recruits across the nation through work in social media, graphic design, video and digital media.
“I'm elated to have Russ on our team at Oregon State”, OSU Deputy Athletic Director for External Operations Zack Lassiter said. “His thought leadership and creativity in the digital space enhances our ability to share the many great things our student athletes are accomplishing on and off the field of play. Russ fits the core values of our department and there is no doubt in my mind he has made us better.”
Houghtaling arrived at OSU after spending the last three years as the director of digital media for athletics at the University of Oklahoma. From 2011-2013 he was the manager of internet services for athletics at the University of Washington, from 2007-11 he served as assistant director of athletic media relations at Northern Illinois University, and during the 2006-07 academic year as a media relations intern at Western Illinois University.
He graduated cum laude from Washington State University in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in public relations and a minor is sports management.
