Here & Beyond
University of Louisville
Brand + Brand Integration + Research
Overview
Like many higher education institutions, the University of Louisville had been navigating a complex landscape of leadership change, athletic crisis and a fractured internal environment where the brand meant different things to different audiences. Additionally, they recognized that the power of a university-wide, cohesive brand story, instead of the fractured one they were telling, would help them come out of the shadow of the state’s flagship institution.
UofL’s Goal
Create and activate a new brand position with the goal of increasing positive perceptions of the university as a great place to learn, work and live.
Our Work
- Brand
- Brand Integration
- Research
Our in-depth brand strategy and planning process conveyed the essence of the university into a compelling vision, mission, positioning statement, communication pillars, reasons to believe and personality.
The process also made clear that the brand value of “vitality” was a perfect fit for the university. The research showed that UofL creates new and improved pathways for student success; it is strongly connected to the local and global community, and it drives research and innovation that improves lives.
The Results
Within the first two months of launch the campaign (called “Here and Beyond”) has produced:
9 MM
digital impressions
30 K
website sessions
1 MM
completed video views on Connected TV
Having achieved great success with a new brand campaign, UofL leadership recognized the need to leverage it internally. Communication across the university’s many units and programs remained inconsistent; the brand appeared to have little impact on how the university operated; and the troubled organizational culture among faculty and staff members remained an issue.
BVK developed an personalized approach to help UofL align its organizational strategy, its people, and its communications to deliver authentic brand experiences to internal audiences. Over 40 workshops were held to launch the customized brand messaging frameworks specific to about two dozen units on campus. A Brand-Strategy Gap Analysis looked at dozens of documents, plans, program websites and other materials and more than 70 people were interviewed to identify gaps between the brand promise and lived experiences.
The Results
The in-depth engagement of the Brand Integration process led to dramatic improvements in UofL’s ability to communicate and genuinely live its new brand, which together have contributed to a more impactful and authentic brand positioning initiative. Armed with unit-specific Brand Messaging Frameworks, UofL’s many departments and programs can communicate with their respective stakeholders in ways that better align with and reinforce the university’s brand position.
The Here & Beyond campaign was the first comprehensive branding effort UofL undertook since 2010. As a result, they did not have a baseline on brand health or current perceptions among their core audiences. So, in the year prior to the launch of the external campaign, BVK conducted a robust quantitative research study of over 3,700 participants to monitor effectiveness of the upcoming campaign communications in impacting the perceptions of the university among those key audiences.
The Results
UofL now has a solid benchmark measurement on key funnel measures (familiarity, consideration, preference, recommendation) and university perceptions prior to the new campaign, against which future measurements can be compared.