Loesch Studios, a Pinehurst, NC Brand Design Studio, was undergoing a re-brand of their own and needed a website hero animation that would help visually represent and tell their brand story of their founder Kiley Loesch, a self-proclaimed nap-time designer. In order to convey this and and her Kansas roots, I animated a cow jumping over the moon. This animation quite literally jumps out to viewers and accurately brings her branding to life.
The ND Alumni Association hosts a Reunion every June to welcome hundreds of Alumni back to their home under the dome. In order to foster their affinity for Our Lady, we devised an idea to trick out a golf cart, drive it around campus, and turn it into a similar environment as the show “Cash Cab”. Our graphic designer, Kiley Loesch, brought my vision to life to create a truly engaging experience. A tradition well known among Domers, the lyrics to the Alma Mater, seemed the appropriate choice to adorn the vehicle. We added the vinyl, threw on sequin jackets, and drove it around all weekend long. To add to the eccentricity, streamers and a replica of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart’s ceiling were added to the roof of the cart. Including a GoPro on the windshield made for a truly well rounded experience. We recorded hundreds of alumni in the golf cart throughout the 4-day event asking them to tell us their favorite memories from their time on campus. We would also engage them in Notre Dame Trivia on longer drives across campus. Women’s basketball Coach Muffet McGraw even hopped in one day! It was such a success that we repeated this initiative at Reunion in 2019. Since all videos recorded were repurposed on social media in order to drive brand awareness and to continue the nostalgic memory filled conversation online, this experience doubled as a way to generate future content for our channels.
The ND Alumni Association’s largest annual event is Reunion. In order to elevate the experience and increase brand awareness, we needed to upgrade from a traditional photo booth into a more engaging event. This is how the dorm room experience was born. After borrowing real dorm furniture and zip tying a vinyl print of cinder block to the gates of the Notre Dame Stadium concourse, we were able to recreate a typical dorm room. Alumni were able to step back in time and recreate scenes from their dorm room days. The interactive “room” had several customization options, allowing for groups to display their class year, dorm name, and even change the posters on the wall.
With campus closed to visitors due to Covid-19, we created an opportunity to bring some of Notre Dame’s most meaningful locations to alumni, parents, and friends through #StillND, a video journey to the Grotto and God Quad. More than 41,000 viewers screened both reflective clips as a way to connect with our campus. I concepted, filmed, and edited the “God Quad” #StillND video.
And yes, it snowed in April. #2020
From the Basilica and benches, to stadiums and statues, Notre Dame is full of places that hold special meaning to students, faculty, and staff. To celebrate Advent in both 2019 and 2020, Sacred Places of Notre Dame invited alumni, parents, and friends to strengthen their faith and deepen their appreciation of Notre Dame. This was achieved through daily videos sharing the stories of people and their most cherished spots on campus. From December 1 through Christmas, the Notre Dame family received emails, text messages, and social media updates sharing the newest video.
Sacred Places of Notre Dame resonated strongly with the ND family, resulting in more than 658, 081 video views. Compared to 2018's Advent campaign, Chapels of Notre Dame, we saw a 172% growth in video views from 2018 to 2019. We also saw a 126% growth in the number of text message subscribers who wanted to receive each day’s video texted directly to them.
In 2020, we saw similar results. Despite the digital fatigue that our audience was experiencing from the global pandemic we were able to see a 54% increase in website comments compared to 2019.
One of the things I pride myself on, is being able to align content, conversation, and audience through content creation. For Notre Dame, there are many common experiences that bond Domers from 1842 to 2020. One of those is the absurd South Bend weather. In order to drum up some engagement and online conversation, I built a snowman in front of one of the most recognizable campus landmarks, Touchdown Jesus. Adorning him in different outfits and accessories, we were able to use these photos on multiple platforms, for multiple purposes, over multiple years.
After extensive research, benchmarking, and testing, a complete social media strategic plan was born for @NDalumni. As outlined in the plan, the Alumni Association shifted the way it thought of social media: Rather than being viewed simply as a communication tool or distribution vehicle for our programs, our social media was now viewed as a program in itself. It is a place for both engagement and conversation, in addition to a communications channel. This shift dictated two major changes in our social media approach. We needed a sophisticated system for tracking our data and regular reporting of data analysis. Lastly, we had to change certain types of posted content that was harming the program, and focus our efforts on content that proved successful in boosting the overall success.
To accomplish this, we rethought some of the promotions that were hurting the success of the program. Typically back in 2016, @NDalumni would post promotions for events and programming as an extension of their email communication. By shifting away from graphic images that were really meant for email and one segment of our audience, we were able to expand our strategy to include content that was engaging to our larger audience. This simple change helped increase the posts engagement rate and organic reach. Overall, this shift has been wildly effective for click throughs, sign ups, purchases, and engagement.
In the first two years of the social media strategy implementation, we have seen substantial growth.
131% increase in Instagram Followers
237% increase in Instagram Engagement Total
101% increase in Facebook Engagement Rate by Follower
85% increase in Twitter Engagement Rate by Follower
Top Performing Content:
For the third consecutive year, the Alumni Association asked the campus community and the global Notre Dame family to come together in celebrating and remembering mothers. On the final day of classes, the Alumni Association invited Notre Dame students and members of the campus community to an outdoor event celebrating mothers. Students and others were encouraged to gather in front of a decorative wall and pose for photographs while holding signs expressing love for their mothers. Students sent thousands of these photographs with customized messages as postcards for Mother’s Day, free of charge thanks to our partnership with the mobile app Ink Cards. The event also featured free ice cream and games for participants, as well as a station for students to submit prayers for a Prayers at the Grotto event being held the Friday before Mother’s Day. The prayer service was also live streamed for all alumni across the globe to attend virtually and attendees prayed thousands of special intentions. This campaign had a surrounding digital presence, including a comical video with Mother’s Day wishes from students.
