07/30/2024
Creative Director, Kelly McMurray shares takeaways from the 2024 CASE Summit for Leaders in Advancement hosted in New York City last week.
“First, you know you are attending a conference in NYC when you walk behind Jimmy Fallon on your way to the venue. Second, I can’t believe this was my first year attending this conference—
From the Opening Keynote “Does the University Have a Future,” by David J. Staley, Ph.D, The Ohio State University to break-out sessions; “Raising Funds or Raising Reputations,” with Rebecca Boucher, Rutgers University, Kelly Hiller, Purdue University, and Jessica McKesey, University of Maryland; “Bolstering Advancement and Communications Partnership for Brand Resilience and Elevation,” with Cutler Andrews and Luke Anderson from Emory University, Abbigail Tumpey and Jen Howe from Georgia Institute of Technology, and the conversations in between I came away optimistic about the future of higher education and more focused than ever on the importance of custom storytelling.
Themes throughout the conference included impact, the importance of telling stories, and brand.
I am glad that “brand” is a term that is finally being embraced in higher ed. But there is still confusion about what it means. For some it means the visual identity, when in fact it is so much more. It is how you are perceived by your community—a tone, a voice, and feeling.
Unifying communications through the institution’s visual identity is imperative in our highly saturated world. Clarity of brand position outside of the visual is also imperative.
I hope that communication does not become too restricted by the brand and lose a sense of inclusion and individual voice. What makes schools unique is the people and opinions they are made up of.
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