Featured Work
Featured Work:
Visual Storytelling
Video: We Are Ambitious for Our Students.
The strategy: Connect with families at the beginning and end of the enrollment journey as an emotional touch point that differentiates a Tower education from local options. The video makes the case for the importance of joy, imagination, critical thinking and creativity as essential preparation for student success.
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I wrote and produced this video with Nuhelm Films as my creative partner. The video has been shown as a pre-show advertisement at a movie theater, on social media, and on the school's website.
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The outcome: Current families express a sense of pride and a feeling of validation in their decision to enroll their children at Tower. Prospective families reference the video as one reason that they decide to attend an admission event or inquire online.
Featured Work: Philanthropy
Direct Mail Campaign
Annual Giving: No Two Tigers Have the Same Stripes.
The strategy: Produce an annual giving campaign that creates an emotional connection between financial giving and students’ ability to discover their unique strengths through a Tower education.
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I designed and produced this conceptual campaign in collaboration with the Development Team. The stepped-accordion brochure draws the reader through each panel depicting students engaged in discussion, leadership and learning. The direct mail was preceded by a video starring students and was followed by themed notes of appreciation and school pride.
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The outcome: The Annual Giving contribution goal was surpassed within weeks of the campaign's launch, including an unanticipated number of leadership gifts.
Marketing Strategy: Market Research
Millennial Parents' Values & Goals
The goal: Source and consolidate data from existing national research to form a deeper understanding of prospective families’ demographics, finances, values and goals for their children's education.
The outcome: Marketing, communication, admission and advancement strategies were adjusted as needed to effectively communicate the value of a Tower education and to build a community of learners and families that aligns with their priorities.
Brand Management: Brand Standards Guide
Brand Standards: A Comprehensive Guide to Representing the Brand
The goal: Create a reference tool for organization-wide use that will enable users to consistently apply brand standards in marketing, communications, presentation materials, photography, and when speaking on behalf of the school.
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The outcome: The brand is strengthened through consistent use of typography, logos, icongraphy, language, photography, grammar, and key assets such as positioning, mission, lore, etc.
Marketing Strategy: Enrollment Journey
The Independent School Enrollment Journey
The enrollment journey is a linear representation of prospective parents’ path to find the best learning environment for their child, combined with the school's “right content at the right time” approach to facilitating that journey. Tower’s enrollment journey is customized for five applicant personas which identify, in broad strokes, the specific needs, behaviors and priorities of potential applicants who share a common set of goals. Delivering content unique to each persona facilitates their research and helps to move them along toward achieving their goals for their family.
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Internally, the journey serves as the starting point for ongoing content audits across all of our media and interactions to assess our ability to facilitate an enrollment decision.
“...when I read Tower’s plan to re-open school during the pandemic...It infused my gift to Tower’s Annual Fund with a sense of rightness. While the plan was necessarily clear, concise and focused, it was the thoughtfulness, care, patience and love embedded into it that stunned me. It is my privilege to support such devoted stewards of our children’s future.”
– Jen & Taine Pechet
Featured Work: Pandemic Communication
Pandemic Communication & Brochure Design
The goal: Create a deeply informed community whose full buy-in to mitigation strategies would facilitate a successful campus reopening.
The reopening plan was the collaborative result of 10 colleagues’ input representing health, technology, and leadership plus state and federal guidelines. I wrote and designed the brochure to feature detailed mitigation and infused it with photos of happy, thriving students. The expository writing style features a straightforward yet optimistic voice. Every word was chosen to make a serious topic a positive experience and a brisk read, increasing the processing of potentially anxiety-stirring information.
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The outcomes:
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100% of families committed to the mitigation which resulted in a full year of on-campus learning with no in-school spread of the virus.
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The Admissions Office received dozens of late applications from prospective families who referenced the Returning Like a Tiger plan.
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The Development Office received gifts to the Annual Fund in response to the brochure.
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The brochure earned recognition as the Apex Award Winner for Publication Excellence.
Featured Work: Crisis Communication
Sharing Difficult News with Constituents
Organizations can emerge from a crisis on solid footing through consistent, honest communication with stakeholders, resulting in increased brand loyalty.
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Due to the nature of this work, I will share work samples on request.