From rebrand to strategic plan within 20 months, hear how Concordia University Irvine approached a comprehensive brand study and strategic planning process in tandem. Shared from the perspectives of the university president, associate vice president of marketing, and the institution's agency partner, this session will share lessons from the combined processes and insights for engaging the campus community and stakeholders.

What is really required to be a brand leader in today’s higher education landscape? How do you help your institution lead with its values? Hear from Jack Martin, Vice President for Communications and Marketing at the University of Washington, as he shares his thoughts about brand strategy, shared equity leadership and the critical role of brand marketing leaders in demonstrating the value of higher education.

Dinner on your own or limited dine-arounds

Western Carolina University began refreshing its institutional brand and building a comprehensive capital campaign set to launch in 2024. In partnership with Ologie, WCU approached the two projects in a staggered tandem, allowing the brand project to feed into the campaign work — making the most of the unique opportunity and helping achieve WCU’s strategic goals. In this session, we’ll provide an optimal approach to building and launching a connected brand refresh and comprehensive campaign effort, including increasing alignment internally, determining the appropriate relationship between the workstreams, and planning milestones to capitalize on shared momentum and bandwidth for the work.

A marketing maturity model can enable colleges and universities to identify their own level of marketing maturity and establish a relevant roadmap for further developing marketing organizational capability and performance. When plotted out over a period of time and used to measure the skill set of the team, it creates a clear perspective on areas where you need to devote time, attention and resources. During this session, three marketing leaders will share their experiences using a marketing maturity model for organizational development. They will give expert guidance, discussing advantages and potential limitations of creating and using your own maturity model.

There are no shortages of studies, reports, and stories that show the decline in public perception around higher education. Most include the perspective of US adults that have and have not earned their college degree. At SimpsonScarborough, we found ourselves asking, what would these perceptions look like if we focused solely on college-educated adults? Our 2023 Alumni Philanthropy Study is the first report of its kind for SimpsonScarborough and comes after higher ed experienced its best fundraising year to date. We surveyed more than 1,000 college-educated adults in the United States for their opinions on giving trends and higher ed. Our findings uncover an interesting dichotomy between the higher ed’s widely reported banner year for fundraising and alumni perceptions of higher ed and philanthropic activity. Understandably this left us asking, What Gives? Join CEO Jason Simon and AVP, Marketing & Business Development Steve App as they share insights and thought-provoking questions to support higher ed marketing leaders in their future strategic fundraising efforts. Session attendees will understand how college-educated adults view higher education and to what extent they believe in its value. They’ll also come away with a better understanding of what compels alumni to donate to higher education, and they key to unlocking the next generation of major donors.