Instagram
[fts_instagram instagram_id=256737344 super_gallery=yes image_size=100px icon_size=50px space_between_photos=1px hide_date_likes_comments=yes center_container=yes image_stack_animation=yes type=user]
Twitter
[fts_twitter twitter_name=elliance]
I live for stories. Simply being in the presence of a good story being told or lived right there in the moment sends adrenaline pumping through my veins. In what is one of the most inspiring TED Talks I have heard, novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares about the impact stories can have, as well as the dangers that come with sharing a single story — or one side of the whole story. “Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize.” She discuses how, especially in our younger years, we are wildly impressionable and vulnerable in the face of a story. Here at Elliance we are responsible for articulating the story of our clients and expressing the soul of their institution — through images, phrases, video, design, copy and more. To be able to give a true account of who you are, we must … Continue reading
Leave a comment
Elliance held its annual employee holiday bash last night. It was tons of fun. And we had a lot to celebrate — It’s been a great year! We are so thankful for our awesome clients and freelance talent! Happy Holidays from all of us!
I have this love for story — the hear and the tell — the feel that comes from being submersed in a good narrative. I believe that I was born with this hunger for story, driven by a native curiosity to know and see and feel the world around me. That, paired with an unshakable desire and urgency to share with others the stories I’ve discovered, led me to pursue my career as a writer. I’ve always loved the creative freedom that comes with writing — the instinctual aspect of the profession. Almost instantaneously after starting my job at Elliance I began blogging — a service we perform for many of our clients, most often those in higher education, to help them expand their reach and better connect with their target audience. As I began to write, I would find myself in the zone, really getting a good flow going in the copy and focusing on telling a brilliant story. … Continue reading
“Everything you quote — every movie, every TV show, every lyric — has been endlessly rewritten… Fall in love with rewriting!” My uncle, who is a great writer, recently said these words. And I love them. It’s a process I know well. Every brand. Every headline. Every script. Every sitemap. Every webpage. All of it. They’ve all been nipped and tucked and scrapped and scratched out and added back in and shifted and shaken not stirred and screamed at and forgiven and rinsed and repeated. A bucket brigade of project managers, clients, writers, editors and SEO strategists passed the words back and forth. Commas were nixed and then added again. A passionate battle in grammar rules that frankly are meant to be broken likely made its way in. And I’ve fallen in love with this process. As you’re reading this, I’ve probably already changed this post and these words — probably this word — ten times. Make that eleven. In … Continue reading
Too often, a college or university approaches a brand development exercise unprepared for the journey ahead, and unable to fully realize the rewards at journey’s end. We offer a 5 point checklist to ensure a better experience and outcome at every step. 1. Know Your Motivation A strong, clear and authentic articulation of your brand can accomplish great things. It helps if everyone agrees on the primary motivation before beginning the process. Resist sugar coating. Be as real and as specific as possible. If it’s about a president’s legacy, be candid. If the current enrollment mix and tuition discounting threaten the school’s bottom line, come clean with the data. If alumni have grown distant and disenchanted, invite your most vocal critics into the process. If you want to raise your research profile, know the key departments and labs. Yes, quantitative surveys might confirm and further inform what you know — but rarely do they surprise anyone or change the primary driver. 2. Appraise Content Assets and Talent Your brand will … Continue reading
A friend and I were finishing up a late dinner Tuesday night when we realized the New Hampshire primary was just about finished up. Curious for the results, I pulled out my phone to check. But I surprised myself with the first place I looked. Not Google. Not CNN. Or Twitter. Or The Times. But Snapchat. I suppose that’s no surprise if you recognize the distinct ghost above (who actually has a name! It’s Ghostface Chillah). Here’s why: Snapchat’s live coverage of significant events is unlike anything that has ever existed. It is revolutionary in the world of storytelling. Imagine a story told from the eyes of 100 different people. That’s 100 different perspectives. 100 different angles. 100 different emotions. All in real time. Here’s how Snapchat’s live story feature works: The Snapchat story event is the sum of 10-second bits all put together in real-time by people — normal people — who are actually there experiencing the events. They’re in chronological … Continue reading
Posted in: snapchat, social media campaigns
I enjoyed a rare two-hour sit down recently with an entire marketing and communications team at a major university — and we never once talked about story. They, like many of you, spoke of feeling beleaguered by the demands of an unending news cycle, a tumbleweed website and the torture drip of “next in line” requests for this event press release or that event poster. I realized that as much as I believe in the power of good story telling, many in house departments have lost control of the conditions that might allow it to happen. In the spirit of giving, let’s all take a few minutes and give ourselves the gift of a good story. I found a couple of recent examples from higher education — reminders that the mission of our college and university communications efforts is not to meet every trumped-up deadline, but to help make a lasting difference. As TV writer Steven Moffat says: “We’re all stories, in the end.” … Continue reading
The Greeks called it their Muse. The Romans called it the Ingenium (the genius). I call it whatever that magic is that gets some meaningful words onto the page. Inspiration. I recently heard a great re-air of a RadioLab interview with Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love. In it, she tells the story of poet Robert Frost working on a particularly lengthy and draining piece for weeks and weeks and weeks. He finally finished the thing, completely dissatisfied, even though he’d put so much effort into it. Sigh. After all that. Nevertheless, Frost woke up the next morning, and sat down to write… “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” (Arguably one of the most well-known poems of the 20th century… No joke, it was last night’s Final Jeopardy! question.) It was as if Frost was being rewarded for his hard work, Gilbert says. Sometimes that’s how the creative process works. Sometimes it really does feel like 99 percent … Continue reading
In light of my yellow Elliance copywriter’s desk making its first journey around the shy Pittsburgh sun, I got to thinking about what I’d learned about higher education marketing in the last year, and if there was anything the handful of schools I’ve worked with had in common. It seems to all boil down to one thing: There are awesome people doing awesome things everywhere. Pardon my vagueness. There are about 2,000 four-year institutions in the United States, and each is known for different things — some more than others. But the one thing that I’ve found, no matter where U.S. News and World Report ranks them, is that 100 percent of these schools have staff, faculty and students putting their hearts into their work. I truly believe that there is magic that happens when passionate people work together. From the hundreds of thousands of service hours completed every year by a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts that has … Continue reading
We recently met around the conference table at Elliance to discuss the pros/cons of pursuing an RFP opportunity — a major state research university wanting to sharpen its brand focus and tell a better capital campaign story in order to raise a nice round $1 billion dollars. Needless to say, with that kind of money on the table, stakes are high — for the customer, of course, but also for Elliance. Although the four senior people around the table could claim a combined 70-plus years of higher education marketing and higher education branding experience, none of us had ever worked on a capital campaign of this magnitude. The RFP spelled it out clearly: “significant demonstrable, direct work experience and expertise in the field of fund raising consulting and projects related to fund raising for institutions of higher education is essential.” My colleagues read this as a well-manned checkpoint and major obstacle. Their body language suggested skepticism and discouragement. I leaned … Continue reading