| |  |  |  | | |  | |  | CCA Fall 2008 Conference |  |  |
The College Communicators Association of Virginia and the District of Columbia (CCA) welcomed Elizabeth Scarborough and Tom Hayes to its fall 2008 conference at Eastern Mennonite University on November 7th. In addition to their presentations, Elizabeth and Tom also accepted the first annual Christopher Simpson Communication Achievement Award, which was presented posthumously to Christopher.
Tom kicked off the conference with a general session and keynote on “Marketing Bloopers (or “There but for the grace of God…”). Tom, who co-authored the book University Marketing Mistakes: 50 Pitfalls to Avoid, pointed out some of the most appalling bloopers he encountered in his research. And, a presentation by Tom just wouldn’t be the same without his humor interjected along with the lessons learned. Elizabeth’s presentation on the “Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Branding” focused on how most colleges don’t have a differentiated brand strategy and, in many cases, try to “sell” the sum total of their mission statements, which are typically broad and far-reaching. Elizabeth's presentation included examples from a variety of institutions, including an in-person presentation by Anne Marie Lauranzon, Director, Marketing & Communications at Randolph-Macon College. Elizabeth demonstrated how when colleges place heavy emphasis on the marketing research required to develop an effective positioning strategy then the college can clarify what a real brand strategy looks like. She further outlined the role this brand should have in driving strategic business decisions in addition to marketing communications. Click here to go to Elizabeth’s Power Point presentation on the CCA website.
 The highlight of the CCA conference for SimpsonScarborough was the presentation of the Christopher Simpson Communication Achievement Award. The CCA decided to establish an award in Christopher’s honor last summer at the Board’s annual planning retreat after discussing Christopher’s true generosity with his time and expertise. As past CCA president Crista Cabe notes, “many members of CCA are more capable professionals as a result of attending conference sessions he [Christopher] presented at no cost to the organization…he genuinely cared about the state of our profession and about our success in doing a good job for our institutions.” The Simpson Award honors professionals who achieve something extraordinary in the shorter term – a magnificent series of publications, exceptionally astute handling of crisis communication, remarkable improvement in positive press coverage, significant success in integrated marketing, etc. At the fall 2008 CCA conference, the first Simpson Award was presented posthumously to Christopher Simpson, and the plaque was accepted by Elizabeth Scarborough and Tom Hayes.
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|  | |  |  | |  | December Blog Spotlight |  |  |
This month, the Blog Spotlight features the “AMA Blog: Millennials Go to College” blog posted by Teresa Valerio Parrot on November 19, 2008. This entry describes Neil Howe’s presentation about Millennials at the 2008 AMA Symposium.
Millennials, Generation Y, The Net Generation, Echo Boomers, iGeneration, and Google Generation all describe the coming-of-age generation of powerful, proactive people. This group is considered to be the last generation of Americans wholly born in the 20th century. It is common in market research to include Americans born in the years 1978-2000 as members of the Millennial generation, which makes the size of the Millennial grouping in the United States approximately 76 million. This group includes our most cherished audience-- traditional-aged prospective students. Neil Howe, well known for his theories about a recurrent cycle of generations in American history and co-author of a number of books with William Strauss on the subject, says that over the next decade Millennials will recast entirely what it means to be young. Mr. Howe believes this generation could emerge as the next great generation. |  |  |  |  |
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Phone 202.293.9050 Fax 202.354.5426 Website www.SimpsonScarborough.com |  |  |  |  |
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This time I couldn’t get to all the sessions I wanted to attend because I believed there was so much new material and approaches to marketing than I have seen in years. This is a testament to the strong work of the committee that worked hours to make difficult choices.
What hasn’t changed is the willingness of attendees to share ideas and insights. I love being around a group of professionals that are truly committed to the discipline. I enjoy the conversations I have with attendees and presenters about issues that face all of us daily. I am thankful for their willingness to teach me and each other so that we all can grow personally and professionally.
