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Brand anthem videos are powerful marketing tools that distill the argument for a college brand’s essence, and reason for being in a concise and impactful manner. They often serve as the centerpiece of a college or university’s branding, enrollment and fundraising campaigns. Once produced, we use them across various marketing channels including websites, social media platforms, advertising campaigns and open houses. They are carefully curated to create brand preference and connect with audiences on an emotional level. Here are four examples of brand anthem videos we’ve produced, SEO-optimized and promoted. The first one was used as a cornerstone of capital campaign for Boler College of Business at John Carroll University. It helped raise $25M and has garnered more than 68,000 views since its launch four years ago. We used the second one as a cornerstone of an integrated enrollment marketing campaign for New York Chiropractic College (recently renamed to Northeast College of Health Sciences). It has not only received more … Continue reading
Posted in: college branding, university branding
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As a leading higher education branding agency, Elliance uses these 7 mindsets, understands these 6 trends, and listens to these 10 brand ambassadors to discover brand essence.
Posted in: Higher Education Branding
As one of Pittsburgh’s longest standing B2B and higher education branding agencies, Elliance has been delivering prosperity to regional and national clients for the past 30 years. In launching over 100 brands, we’ve tested the strength of our brand propositions using the following criteria: 1. Brand Idea/Ideal There is a deep yearning in people to belong to a tribe of like-minded people. Along with the wish to “buy” a product/service, they have a subliminal desire to “buy into” the ideals that the brand embodies and personifies. Great brands intentionally attach an idea/ideal to their product or service e.g. independent thinking and open-mindedness for St. John’s College, and environmental and social responsibility for Patagonia. What’s yours? 2. Distinctive One key way to outsmart competitors without outspending is to elevate the brand by creating a memorable and distinctive brand. Indeed, in the sea of sameness, a distinctive brand always wins. 3. Authentic True and believable authenticity sells. To live authentically, brands unshackle themselves … Continue reading
Posted in: Pittsburgh Branding Agency
As one of Pittsburgh’s longest standing B2b and higher education branding agencies, Elliance has been delivering prosperity to regional and national clients for the past 28 years. Our arsenal of branding best practices includes: 1. Know Why You Brand When choices proliferate, branding ascends. Three reasons why successful organizations brand: In the sea of sameness, brands always win. Brands command premium prices. Financial markets value brands higher than generics. 2. Define “Brand” A brand is the sum of all experiences. It attaches an idea to a product or service e.g. achievement for Nike, freedom for Southwest Air, great books for St. John’s College, and engaged learning for Elon University. A brand creates expectations and promises around a product or a service while creating strong or even impenetrable differentiation in the marketplace. 3. Discover Your Brand Bring both a rational and an investigative mind to brand discoveries. Scour all available data to look for key insights. When listening to internal stakeholders, customers … Continue reading
Posted in: Pittsburgh Branding Agency
Can ChatGPT help under-staffed and under-resourced marketing teams become more productive? We analyze each marketing function and rated its performance.
Communicating before, during and after a capital campaign requires the kind of symphonic thinking that author Daniel Pink explores in A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. Strategic visions and campaign priorities can quickly deconstruct into campaign inventory and itemization — losing all connection to a larger and more compelling story about why a college matters and to the invitation for how donors might connect their singular sense of purpose to something larger. It’s not a matter of longer versus shorter content, but a question of what Pink calls the “relationship between relationships.” Pink talks of the three types of people that thrive when asked to overlay little and big pictures. Boundary Crossers: comfortable with abstraction, they understand how a concept like regulation can inspire donors to support the training of future financial accountants who will police insider trading and osteopathic doctors equipped to ease an epidemic of diabetes. Inventors: able to project new … Continue reading
As a newly selected college president, you may view your pending move in traditional terms — relocating to a new city, occupying a new office or executive residence and joining a new campus culture. You’re also inheriting a .edu web address that can help accelerate or impede your best laid presidential plans. Here’s a field guide for new or aspiring presidents that’s designed to help you read between the lines — code and content — and better understand the power and perils of your new .edu. Revenue Your college or university website should have one unquestioned priority — generating reliable and repeatable revenue. KPI: Is the website converting right-fit enrollment prospects, engaging alumni, attracting strategic partners and inspiring donors? Quick Check: How quickly does the site experience connect diverse enrollment audiences with the academic program, admissions and financial aid essentials? Can prospective full-time undergraduates, doctoral students, international applicants and non-traditional military prospects all easily find their lane? Are calls to … Continue reading
Posted in: Advice for New College Presidents
College marketing and communications teams increasingly look to boost video teams and budgets. All well and good, but we should not overlook the enduring value and impact of your still image library. It’s easy to grow complacent and assume that last year’s photos will meet this year’s needs. It’s tempting to hire less qualified photographers, and to cram too many shots into a long day of shooting. Here are 5 Quick Tips on how to build, maintain and mature your campus photo library. Frequency: Many college photo libraries grow stale without anyone noticing. If you want to maintain a viable collection of photos, plan on four, two-day shoots each year. Story needs and brand understanding change — as do seasons, fashion, hair, and the campus environment. You will need to schedule multiple shoots each year for photos to keep pace. Quality: Staff photographers spend so much time shooting grip-and-grin, raise-a-glass campus events that few have time to hone their editorial POV … Continue reading
As revenue pressures grow across higher education, so do board- and cabinet-level imperatives to “define the brand.” Easier said than done, true. But also worth every ounce of effort. At its best, a brand discovery should yield an authentic and durable brand position (with a 10-year shelf life). Better yet, a brand discovery (well planned and executed) should liberate your institutional voice — a bright new vocabulary that establishes an emotional connection with prospects and other stakeholders; a way to articulate, with clarity, verve and imagination why you matter. Getting the brand and voice right can test any school and potential partner. Brand discovery is where you begin to look more closely at hidden assumptions and unexamined bias — on your way to a clearing where new light allows something fresh and unforeseen to emerge. Choose quality over quantity How you approach brand discovery, especially the rationing of scarce time on campus, will have a big impact on results. A … Continue reading
Former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight famously said to an audience of newspaper reporters, “All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things.” Part joke, part poisoned-tipped joust, the heralded Knight voiced an ambivalence about writing and writers that lingers within many college marketing departments and their creative agencies. Entire blog columns and books have advanced the notion that “content is king.” That idea traces to an 1996 essay by Microsoft founder Bill Gates who envisioned an Internet buoyed by fresh, enlivening content. Google Ngram shows that phrase rocketing straight into conventional wisdom. One could argue the theory, but the eye test says otherwise — the vast seas of web content carry mostly ephemera. My first digital assignment — a 155-character meta description — began my re-education in a new hyper language, one that promised greater speed and potency. As newspaper writers, we learned a seven-second rule — the average … Continue reading