Author: Nicole

Background

While many hospitals can offer pediatric care, only Children’s National Hospital can offer world class pediatric care from doctors who specialize in treating children. Kids are not tiny adults, and the doctors at Children’s National Hospital are nationally ranked in all pediatric specialties. The campaign goal is to drive patient volume and overall awareness for the primary care program and the other specialties.

The Process

As the agency of record for Children’s National Hospital, we developed the Grow Up Stronger campaign to highlight how Children’s National’s doctors were at the forefront of pediatric research and technology, while being conveniently located in the heart of the nation’s capital and the surrounding DMV area.

Each year, we adapted and evolved the campaign messaging and creative to appeal to parents. In partnership with Children’s National’s media agency, we developed a multi-channel strategy that included digital, print, out of home and video.

Background

Butler University’s location in Indianapolis is a key part of their brand identity, however they felt disconnected from the city. The ‘Everything’s Butler in Indy’ campaign was created to help address this issue through a creative concept that included a microsite and environmental advertisements.

The Process

Together with a strategist, I helped to identify key Strategy Drivers for this campaign. We wanted Butler University to be the first thing you thought of when you heard Indianapolis, because Butler is a huge contributor in everything, from the art community, to athletics, to the economy.

A designer and copywriter helped to establish the creative concept: Everything’s Butler in Indy. Drawing some inspiration on the existing brand guidelines, the concept became tactics that included a microsite and environmental media.

Background

Butler University’s mascot, Blue III (aka Trip), was nearing retirement age, so the University began their search to find a new puppy to take over the role. The University wanted to seize the opportunity to create a strategic plan for the new puppy that built upon the University’s existing brand. Blue IV would not only be an athletic mascot but would be a marketing tool for the University and a fixture in University communications.

The Process

While the University’s marketing team sought out the perfect puppy to represent the school, SimpsonScarborough began to develop Blue’s new brand platform. As the strategist on this project, I drew from the University’s established brand and some dog friendly traits to tie Blue in with the University’s mission.

With a unique brand for Blue, we began to look for marketing roles he could potentially fill as the new mascot, while taking advantage of the ‘cuteness window’. As an ardent supporter of student athletes, Blue runs across the basketball court ahead of every home game. He serves as a student recruiter, hand delivering acceptance letters to local Indianapolis seniors who applied to Butler University. He also brings awareness to the #1 Regional University in the Midwest.

Background

Butler University’s had hit a wall with their website — it was in an outdated Drupal CMS, lacked functionality, was difficult to update, and wasn’t effectively reaching its intended audience. SimpsonScarborough was contracted to do a complete redesign of the website and migrate it to WordPress. This post will outline the first phase for the project: Discovery & Strategy.

The Process

The website redesign process began with a discovery session. As the Account Executive on this project, I worked with the client to plan a campus visit in order to meet with various stakeholder groups to get a better understanding of their needs and frustrations with the current website. In preparation for the campus visit, I worked with the Director of Web Development and a web strategist to come up with questions that would help guide the groups through the discovery process.

Questions included:

Once Discovery was complete, the team and I regrouped to begin to build the key deliverable for this phase: a document outlining the discovery findings and strategic recommendations such as CMS, SEO, and website architecture. My analysis of the discovery findings included identifying chief complaints and building an audience profile. The website needed to effectively communicate with many groups: current students, prospective students, parents and families of students, alumni, faculty and staff, businesses and corporations, and the surrounding city of Indianapolis.

Background

Iron Bow, a technology company, was looking to market their Cloud Platform, Iron Target, to government agencies, contractors, and other companies within the DC area. Iron Bow needed to reach key decision makers through creative ads that were eye catching and easy to understand. Iron Bow’s marketing team already purchased ad space for digital banners, print ads in magazines and newspapers, e-newsletter and email sponsorships, and out of home placements in the DC Metro. With vendor due dates quickly approaching, they needed cohesive collateral that helped Iron Bow stand apart from their many competitors.

the process

I served as the project manager and worked with a creative team that included a designer, a copywriter, an assistant art director, a strategist, and an account manager. The extremely tight turnaround demanded that the team use their time efficiently, so I took the lead in gathering all requirements and ensuring that they were met in order to reduce the amount of time spent on revisions.

After establishing the requirements and confirming the specs with the client, the team began the concepting phase and presented 3 separate concepts to the client. After selecting the concept that they wanted to pursue, the design team got to work developing the other tactics, which were then approved by the client, and shared with Iron Bow’s marketing team. The project was considered a massive success, ending with a very happy client and coming in under the projected hours.

Background

Hamilton College is a small, private, liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. They boast a very strong alumni network, and a unique culture. In order to elevate their status as a top liberal arts college in the Northeast, Hamilton sought research to support a new marketing and communications strategy. Research conducted by SimpsonScarborough included two focus groups and in-depth interviews with current students an online survey for alumni.

I believe research should be the cornerstone of every project. Before trying to create messages, we needed to evaluate the current messaging from the perspective of alumni and students. With a limited budget, we determined that a quantitative online survey for alumni and qualitative research for students would be the most effective way to gather research.

The process

Aside from my duties as the Account Executive to efficiently manage the project and all communication between teams, I had the opportunity to make a bigger impact during the research phase. I assisted the Strategist in creating the quantitative survey instrument that would go out to Hamilton Alumni as well as developed the interview script that would be used for virtual one-on-one interviews and focus groups with students. I personally conducted some of the in-depth interviews and used the transcripts to derive key themes that supported the quantitative findings.

A significant hurdle that we had to overcome was generating buy-in with the President and other executive leaders within the College, while supporting the final decision maker – the Vice President for Communications and Marketing. Establishing clear boundaries with institution leaders helped the VP for Communications and Marketing find her voice, and we proved the value of research through the use cases of comparable institutions.

Research