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Words and Images Courtesy of SimpsonScarborough

We build brands that “endure, inspire, and elevate” the work of colleges and universities. To continue with the alliteration, we also empower in-house marketing and communications teams by building brands that marketing departments of all sizes can work with, and that the campus community wants to work with. Because it’s imperative that your brand, like Lebanon Valley College’s, works out there in the real world and is easy to work within yours.

So, the opportunity was more than simply to better articulate and advance a more authentic LVC to its audiences, which working together we’ve accomplished. It was also a chance to align, unite, and excite the campus and to demonstrate Marketing and Communications’ immense contribution to the College’s long-term strategic vision.

Our solution included deeper, more meaningful research; more informed brand strategy recommendations; 360-degree strategic messaging; novel creative, including multiple videos; and testing of the creative with constituents. And soon, web. Throughout it all, a common theme developed: “Further. More.”

The theme would go on to heavily inform the College’s refinement of its mission, vision, values, and value proposition, as well as the goals and priorities of LVC’s institutional strategic plan, which were developed to align with the “Further. More.” strategic brand pillars.

‘Further. More.’ was unanimously approved by our Board of Trustees in February 2019. The college invested additional operating funds into the subsequent rollout.
– Molly O'Brien-Foelsch, Vice President, Marketing and Communication

In-depth strategy and brand guidelines packed with the tools and insights communicators need to bring to life and to sustain a brand: story starters that showed how to turn facts and figures into engaging copy; a new typeface (Raleway) that aligns with the hardworking, genuine, and kind personality the College is known for; and sections on How to Live the Brand and Best Practices for Other Departments.

Extensive brand trainings that included real-time exercises not only to fully engage participants, but also to ensure they understood how the various elements came together to make the brand and how they can best work together to effectively tell it going forward.

Numerous sample creative executions: travel pieces and t-shirts, bus shelters and viewbooks, print ads and social campaigns, light pole banners, and signage. A new website is also in the works.

The results are in. LVC’s social media following, for both the College and its athletics channels, has grown every year since 2019, as has its media reach. But what makes our partnership so fulfilling is that the campus not only fully embraced the brand, from research and strategy to messaging and creative, it continues to inform the institution at the highest levels. Oh, and students love it.