In this opening keynote, join Jim Lake, President of Michael Waters Advertising as he walks through 100 years of the Chicago Cubs strategic brand and explores how the Cubs brand has changed as culture has evolved. He will also discuss the value of emotion in brand, the value in personalizing consumer groups, as well as how to navigate the introduction of other elements (or sub-brands) into your brand.

This session will focus on a four-year analysis of a successful brand campaign at Berry College, a liberal arts college of 2,200 undergraduate students. As the undergraduate college enrollment at private four-year nonprofit colleges has declined since 2020, enrollment at Berry College has substantially increased. The campaign that was implemented during this period developed four value pillars: campus beauty, mentorship, student work, and preparing students for life after college. Objectives of the campaign included increasing prospective parent and student awareness of the college, and increasing the number and diversity of students. Results indicated increased awareness for parents, as well as increased enrollment and racial diversity. As student racial diversity increased, the school has sought to create a culture of belonging through surveying students regarding the current inclusion climate on campus, the hiring of a Chief Diversity and Belonging Officer, creation of an intercultural center, and establishing a partnership with the King Center.

Remember the 4 Ps of marketing? Somehow, Product has largely been absent from higher ed marketing. In this session, learn to go beyond colors, taglines and logos, and leverage product strategy to set your brand apart. Borrowing product ideation practices from start-up companies and product development teams, OSU-Cascades set out to create a new program that would be so compelling for students it would become a distinctive feature of the campus. “Cascades Edge” became a robust career development program that provides professional development every single term, and it’s built directly into the coursework. It also amplifies a long-standing anchor of the brand. Walk away with an understanding of how to use product features as “power signals” in your branding, and a list of ideas to get you started.

The University of Calgary embarked on an ambitious brand campaign in 2022 called "Start something" and has seen it go on to achieve numerous marketing accolades including a CASE grand gold award. Join UCalgary's Senior Director of Brand Experience to walk through how the campaign was developed, brought to life, and how it continues to evolve and grow today. He will discuss strategies for amplifying a distinct message with your audiences and ways to make a campaign accessible for all faculties and different areas of the institution that may traditionally be challenging to engage.

Are there core principles we should keep top of mind—to capture the soul of our institutions and amplify our brands—before we make a move? Before we produce that case for support, admissions view-book, media pitch, homepage refresh, community letter, invitation, campus store T-shirt? There are. You probably know them already or follow them intuitively. But let's name them and discuss them to ensure we're reaching hearts and heads, which can strengthen the bonds between our constituents and our schools.