You know that what your institution calls a brand is actually a logo and a worn tagline. It’s time to get serious about your brand positioning. You need research, critical thinking, creative brilliance, and a digital-first strategy. And you need a website that serves as the flagship for your newly articulated brand. How do you get your senior leadership to understand and buy into the time and resources necessary for a branding initiative and website redesign done right? In this webinar, mStoner and our branding partner BVK arm you with the tools — the data, the stories, presentation approach and techniques — you’ll need to build and deliver a persuasive pitch to your decision-makers. What You'll Learn: The process, timeline, and potential costs involved in a brand-to-website project. Options and alternatives for sequencing work, particularly in the face of institutional milestones or strategic planning process. Ways to justify a large investment using data and information that will resonate with your institution’s decision-makers.

1. Pitch Perfect:
Webinar
GAINING INTERNAL BUY-IN FOR A BRAND-TO-WEBSITE APPROACH

2. Your Moderator Today:
Mallory
+ Director of Marketing and Sales
+ Executive Producer, Higher Ed Live
+ L.A. Transplant
@MalloryWillsea

3. Housekeeping:
A few starting details:
45-minute webinar + 15 minutes for questions and answers
Chat and ask questions through the Zoom Control Panel
Tweet during the webinar with #mStonerNow
Please fill out the post-webinar survey
Check your inbox early next week for the webinar recording and slide deck

4. Your Co-Presenter Today:
Pat
+ VP of Accounts at BVK
+ Brand Strategist
+ Son of the Midwest

5. Your Co-Presenter Today:
Voltaire
@vsantosmiran
+ Co-Founder of mStoner
+ Senior Web Strategist
+ Chicago Native

6. As We Get Started
Today’s Goal
To provide you with useful and actionable information and ideas to help
you build a case for a brand-to-website project done best.
To inspire you to dream big and empower you and to effectively gain
enthusiastic buy-in for a brand-to-web approach to your project.

7. Today’s
Topics
1. The State of the Art
2. A Different Path
3. Process, Timeline
4. Building the Case
Agenda

8. An Opening Question
(We’re all friends here.)
What’s the one word that
you’d use to describe the
state of your brand?

9. The State of the Art

10. A Sea of Sameness
Rigorous Academics &
Experiential Learning
Professors Committed
to Your Personal Success
The Start of a Rewarding
and Long Career
Strong and Loyal
Network of Alumni
The Ideal Location and
Great Campus
Interdisciplinary
Approach to Learning
Fulfillment, Leadership,
Global Worldview
Friends That You’ll
Make For Life
No, Really. Really. Really.
REALLY.

11. “If you talk to a man in a language he
understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to
a man in his language, it goes to his heart.”
Nelson Mandela
‘‘

12. The Universal College &
University Homepage
CAROUSEL, BIG PHOTO,
OR DRONE VIDEO
THREE NEWS ITEMS
THREE EVENTS ITEMS
REQUEST INFO | VISIT | APPLY | GIVE
THREE PROFILES
BY THE NUMBERS
HEADER
FAT FOOTER
SOCIAL MEDIA AGGREGATOR

13. Poll
(No judging, we promise.)
On a scale of 1 to 5, how
closely does your site
resemble this wireframe?

14. “If you take our logo away from our header,
we’d look like every other
university website out there today.”
Almost Every Web Manager Ever
‘‘

15. A Different Path

16. A Different Path
A Values-Based Approach
Focused on values and
ideals that are part of the
institution’s DNA.
Beyond Features
& Benefits
Tapping into a person’s
own values that drive
decisions and frame their
world.
An Emotional
Connection
A brand that stakeholders
can embrace across the
institution because they’ve
helped to articulate it.
Institution-Wide
Engagement
Reflected across all
channels, beginning with
your website.
Holistic
Activation

17. A Different Path
Digital-First
… than a viewbook or
billboards or digital ads.
More Reach and
Impact …
You need to think through
more issues around visual
identity on your site than
any other channel.
A Robust
Foundation
You can ride the wave of
attention and excitement
created by the branding
work to propel a web
relaunch.
Leveraging
Enthusiasm
The better the site, the
stronger the results …
across admissions, alumni
relations, development,
and reputations/rankings.
Immediate
Returns

18. Process & Timeline

19. A Typical Approach
Brand
Development
Brand
Execution
Website Project
Begins
Go-Live
Month 1 Month 24
Month 6 Month 12
Viewbook
Production
Month 9

20. Zoom in: Brand Research and Concept Development
Discovery Begins
Research
Strategy
Concept Approved
Month 1
Month 6

21. Zoom In: Website Research and Concept Development
Discovery Begins
Research
Strategy
Concept Approved
Month 1
Month 6

22. Pan Right: A New Approach
Brand+Web
Research
Digital-First
Concepting
Go-Live
Month 1 Month 13
Month 3
Brand+Web
Execution
Month 6
Viewbook
Production
Month 9

23. Building the Case

24. Step 1:
Find the window of
opportunity.
• President
• CMO
• VP of Marketing
• VP of Admissions
• VP of Advancement
New Leadership
• Name change
• Milestone anniversary
• Growth or shrinkage
• Merger
Institutional Shifts
• Demographics
• Employment rates
• Increased competition
Seismic Shifts
• Enrollment
• Retention
• Giving
• Rankings
Issues with Numbers

25. Step 2:
Play the long game
through education.
• Not a logo
• Not fonts and colors
• Not a tagline
What is a brand?
• Immediate impact
• Long-term benefits
• The cost of not doing
this work
Why is it important?
• Positioning
• Strategy
• Toolkits
• Training
What are the elements?
• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
• Secondary research
• All-campus engagement
What is the process?

26. Step 3:
Cast the vision by painting
a vivid picture of success.
We will all be able to tell
our story with pride and
confidence.
A campus community
with swagger.
Communications that
reflect you
Best-kept secret,
shared far and wide.
One voice,
one look, one feel.
All of our materials will
finally reflect the quality
of our institution with
authenticity.
We will no longer be the
“hidden gem” that no one
knows about. We will raise
awareness and build
prestige.
We will be able to create a
more seamless experience
and establish a strong and
unified visual identity.

27. Step 4:
Mind the “must-haves.”
• Brand+web are
essential to the
strategic plan
• Marketing is finally
getting a seat at the
table
Focus on larger
institutional goals.
• A well-planned solution
will work now and will
scale in the future as
you grow
Preach scalability
and sustainability.
• The world moves faster
than your institution
does
Highlight the pace of
external change.
• The Alabama Effect
Research competitors
on the move.

28. Step 5:
Convince through
collaboration.
AdvancementEnrollment
Marketing & Communications
Academics
Athletics
Student Life
Current Students
Faculty
Staff
Senior Leadership Alumni

29. Step 6:
Invoke the success of other
institutions.

30. Micro Case Study: Michigan State University
Objective: Increase alumni engagement/capital
campaign donations.
Results: Exceeded 2017/18 goal of 90,000 new
unique visitors to Spartans Will page by Q2.
Exceeded the five-year, $1.5 billion capital
campaign goal in just under three years.
Ingenuity. Vision. An openness to different ways of thinking. They’re inside every Spartan. That’s
how they bring new ideas to life and shape a better tomorrow. Get a glimpse at MSU.edu/inside
PETER BURROUGHS
MSU SENIOR,
VIDEO GAME DESIGN

31. Case Study: Texas Christian University
Objective: Develop cohesive brand across
university and all colleges/student
engagement.
Results: have successfully rolled out the brand
adopted by all eight colleges. Ranked in top 2%
of universities in student engagement by “Wall
Street Journal.”
TCU is inspiring students to make a positive
impact on the world. LeadOnTCU.edu.
TCU is inspiring students to make a positive
impact on the world. LeadOnTCU.edu.
WORLD CITIZENS.

32. Micro Case Study: Bryant & Stratton College
Objective: Increase website visits and increase
applications across campuses and online.
Results: In the first year after brand campaign
launched, 97% increase in web visits for campus
and online programs. 31% increase in on-campus
and online applications.

33. Micro Case Study: UNSCA
Objective: Create a web presence that
communicates what makes the UNCSA
experience unique and rich.
Results: Social media referrals increased
96%. Admissions inquiries increased
518%. Online giving increased 48%.
Applications to the school of filmmaking
increased 37%.

34. Micro Case Study: Medill
Objective: Launch an intuitive website
that conveys the institutional brand and
visual identity.
Results: Undergraduate admissions
applications are up more than 25% in the
current cycle.

35. Micro Case Study: Rush University
Objective: Create a one-Rush narrative
while providing targeted information for
disparate graduate audiences.
Results: Within the first month of
launch, Rush received 2,000 new
admissions inquiries. Overall traffic is up
20% in a year-over-year comparison.

36. What’s Next?

37. Resources
Resources
BVK+mStoner's Webinar Series
Apply to Compete for Pitch Perfect 2 Brainstorm with Mallory
Spend Your Summer With Us Pitch Perfect 2: Enter the Shark Tank Explore
Take the webinar survey

38. Questions?

39. Thank You!
MALLORY WILLSEA
(802) 457-9234
mallory.willsea@mstoner.com
PAT MCGOVERN
(414) 247-3857
pat.mcgovern@bvk.com
VOLTAIRE SANTOS MIRAN
312.420.6778
voltaire.miran@mstoner.com