Art Appreciation
CURRENTS Article The donor wall recognizing St. Martin's Episcopal School's recent capital campaign reflects its brand and visual identity system. In addition to featuring colors and shapes used in the independent school's communications, marketing, and fundraising materials, the donor wall also doubles as a piece of art that blends in with the building.

Artistic Statement
CURRENTS Article Simon Fraser University brings its strategic vision statement to life with a graphic animation video that illustrates its priorities and brand attributes.

Embracing Change
CURRENTS Article This article discusses how changes in the way universities are organized in Finland led to the creation of University of Helsinki's first fundraising campaign, which, in turn, informed its university branding efforts. The university brought its brand to the city of Helsinki in several ways, including creative newspaper ads, public events, and a store in the city center that was inspired by Apple stores and designed to showcase its research in ways that would interest the public.

It's Academic
CURRENTS Article This feature article looks at the importance of involving faculty members in the institutional branding process from the start. Faculty members have influence over the brand, so engaging them and getting them to buy-in will help inform the branding, or repositioning, process.

No Longer Faces in the Crowd
CURRENTS Article In this short feature article, Anna Myers of the U.K.'s Oxford Brookes University discusses that institution's recent rebranding efforts, which led to the creation of the Distinct project, an initiative that supports U.K. institutions by sharing current best practices that identify and communicate what differentiates them in the higher education market.

In Service to Others
CURRENTS Article At Stonehill College in Massachusetts, a service initiative helps local schoolchildren and serves as an extension of the undergraduate experience.

From Lancaster, Pa., to Milan
CURRENTS Article A European clothing company borrows its name from a U.S. college and boosts the college's international exposure in return.

Getting to Know U
CURRENTS Article How did American University develop a brand strategy (the "KNOW/WONK" campaign that launched in fall 2010) that was original, authentic, and representative of AU's distinctive personality? This article explores how AU guided the brand campaign through the critical approval process, intact, with leadership's support and enthusiasm.

Building Buzz
CURRENTS Article Walsh College's vice president and chief marketing and enrollment management officer, John Lichtenberg, discusses livening up the business schools branding efforts with a campaign that employs a simple yet accessible and attention-grabbing style in its TV, print, web, and other advertising as well as guerilla marketing tactics such as the Walsh College Yellow Suits, a band of actors who attend events and create a buzz factor around this Detroit-area business college.

Armonía relativa
CURRENTS Article Este artículo habla sobre las marcas, ¿qué son las marcas?, ¿porqué son importantes? y ¿qué invulcra una marca? También habla sobre el desarollor de submarcas o marcas relacionadas, en instituciones de eduación superior.

Odds and Ends: Culture Club
CURRENTS Article In this interview with CURRENTS, Jenn Lim, CEO and Chief Happiness Officer of Delivering Happiness, discusses the importance of culture in branding and the key role that happiness plays in her work. Lim's partner in Delivering Happiness is Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos Inc.

Relative Harmony
CURRENTS Article This article discusses brands and branding—what it is, why it's important, and what's involved in branding. It also discusses the issue of developing subbrands or related brands, particularly named professional schools, at higher education institutions.

Join the Party
CURRENTS Article This article discusses the six essential factors involved in successful institutional branding initiatives and why branding is necessary, particularly in light of current economic challenges and the demographic pressures coming to bear on the educational marketplace. The author, Robert M. Moore, is president and CEO of the marketing communications firm Lipman Hearne.

Advance Work: Shell Shocked
CURRENTS Article One institution uses marketing to rally its community around a slogan.

Advance Work: Grow and Tell
CURRENTS Article Oxford Brookes University in England launched an award-winning communications campaign in the midst of a years-long demolition and reconstruction project on campus.

Branding out of the Box
CURRENTS Article Higher education marketers generally look inward for the best ways to sell their university's message, but perhaps a better place to look would be the world of consumer products.

Framing Your Mission
CURRENTS Article Although each independent school has qualities that are distinctive, the missions of many schools sometimes sound quite similar. So how do you make your institution stand out? By using marketing to establish your brand.

Mascots on a Mission
CURRENTS Article Although your mascot may seem like just a cuddly creature or a fierce defender, it may be signaling more about your brand than you realize.

Everything Speaks
CURRENTS Article Everything about an institution, from the tidiness of lobbies to the smile on the receptionist’s face, “speaks” and makes critical impressions on students, visitors, and others. Paying attention to such details can make the difference in whether a campus achieves its strategic goals. This article shares advice on how to incorporate the “everything speaks” marketing philosophy on campus and use it to generate results. The accompanying sidebar highlights the importance of employees and internal communications to this philosophy. It offers suggestions for keeping an institution’s faculty and staff members informed and showing them they are vital to the school’s mission.

Brand Opening
CURRENTS Article Branding campaigns are typically driven by enrollment goals. But major capital campaigns offer an institution a terrific opportunity to define, position, and enhance its brand in another marketplace: that of alumni, donors, friends, and prospects who will make the gifts that allow the institution to achieve its broader strategic goals.

Coming Into Focus
CURRENTS Article What started as a news office/news bureau on many campuses evolved into a public relations office, which evolved into a communications and marketing operation. Many practitioners are now operating in an integrated environment. This article examines the factors that account for the change and is, in a sense, a conversation among practitioners about ways in which the profession has changed--some changes are subtle, some more a function of semantics, and others are fundamental. It explores whether the traditional role of campus PR officer morphed into a brand manager role, whether PR is an outdated term, whether media relations still the way to build (and manage) reputation, and more.

Closing Remarks: Novel Ways
CURRENTS Article Branding is commercial storytelling, and campus communications and marketing pros should consider using the elements of fiction--character, plot, dialogue, scene, place, point of view, and sensory detail--when they are writing and telling their institutions’ stories. The author describes how campus writers can persuade readers of an institution’s virtues and still tell a compelling story.

Winners at Heart
CURRENTS Article Profiles of 12 winners of CASE’s 2004 Circle of Excellence awards. The winning alumni relations programs offered creative ways to generate revenue, use technology, or support a campus cause. In the development categories, campuses showed how to use flash e-mail annual giving solicitations and speech-writing students to attract donors. Communications winners relied on humor, creativity, and unconventional publications. And top advancement services shops highlighted the importance of identifying top campus prospects, working as a team, and maintaining accurate data.

AdvanceWork: Farewell Tour
CURRENTS Article Empire State College officials launched a "Bring Out Your Dead" campaign to facilitate the transition from old to new campus marketing materials. In the college’s adaptation of the medieval practice of disposing of the dead--satirized in the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"--campus officials asked staff members to hand over "dead" copies of marketing publications in exchange for new ones featuring the updated logo. The yearlong campaign softened "the blow and shock of a major change," says Director of College Relations Kirk Starczewski.

Mining for Gold
CURRENTS Article Profiles of 12 CASE Circle of Excellence 2003 winners. Member institution nominees were judged on the creativity of their alumni relations, communications, and development initiatives, including alumni publications, reunions, constituency giving, stewardship, and alumni relations programs. Profiled winners include Brigham Young University/University of Utah; Columbia College Chicago; Georgia Tech Alumni Association; Goucher College; Imperial College London; the Institute for Shipboard Education; Lehigh University Alumni Association; Monroe Community College Foundation; Pennsylvania State University; the University of Chicago; the University of Iowa Alumni Association; and the University of Miami.

Stand Out in a Crowd
CURRENTS Article Branding is challenging for colleges and universities, whose brands are diffuse and complex and whose faculty, alumni, students, and advancement and admission officers send diverse messages. This article describes a proposed market taxonomy for postsecondary education based on brand characteristics and discusses market research, positioning, and the fundamentals of brand management. Includes brief case studies from Trinity University in San Antonio and Ohio University. This article is of interest to marketers who deal with branding and student recruitment as well as marketing and communications managers.

Raising the Roof
CURRENTS Article The director of public relations at Susquehanna University describes how campus leaders helped a new president adjust quickly to the institution. A committee created a transition plan that included a nine-month schedule of events and meetings with key constituencies. The committee also compiled a briefing packet and included the new president in discussions of important institutional issues even before his arrival.

AdvanceWork: A Real Advancement Hero
CURRENTS Article Frostburg State University features three superhero comic book characters in its annual fund appeal and exceeds its fund-raising goal by more than $20,000.

Campaign Strategies: The Benefits of Branding
CURRENTS Article Development officers should use their institution’s brand equity to link a campaign with the positive qualities people associate with the institution. The article describes five steps to help development officers leverage the institution’s identity, mission, and values in campaign communications.