SimpsonScarborough is the data-driven partner for higher education marketers. 

In-person visit days for admitted students have long been considered the anchor of the spring recruitment event lineup. Many students make their final college choice immediately after attending these deal-making or deal-breaking events. Just three years ago, I remember going with my son to back-to-back 'admitted student days' at his top two institutions. Just an hour into the event at the second campus, he decided he wanted to attend the school we had visited the previous day, Franklin & Marshall College. He couldn't explain why — it was just a gut feeling.

Gaming. It's been popular for decades but has taken a lead spot in hobby lists and quarantine pastimes in the past 12 months for people of all ages and backgrounds. Gaming unifies people around the globe, enabling them to enter new worlds, ignite their imaginations, and find some reprieve from the daily grind. Feels like a win-win during a time of incredible anxiety.

We're extremely proud to announce the promotion of Lex Hade to Director of User Experience (UX).

We're extraordinarily proud to announce the promotion of Perrie Howes to the role of Director, Project Management Office. 

This is a guest post from one of our industry colleagues, Michael Imber.  Michael is a Managing Director at Conway MacKenzie, part of advisory firm Riveron, and has extensive experience working with higher education institutions and not-for-profit enterprises. This is the first of a two-part series on institutional value proposition as a means of driving long-term sustainability.

Early in my career as a higher ed market researcher, I never would have imagined working with provosts and deans to study the demand for potential new programs. Decision-making related to new programs rested squarely with the academics among the administration; the opinions of marketers were rarely factored in. Assessment criteria included organizational fit, investment requirements, operational costs, and possibly some broad secondary data on job trends. The most important factor seemed to be the existence of a strong and effective champion for the program among the faculty. From a marketing perspective, the attitude seemed to be, "If you build it, they will come." Marketers, of course, know that only happens in the movies.

Design thinking is a methodology that provides a solutions-based approach to solving real-world problems. In the world of higher ed marketing, it can be a framework to help address big questions and solve challenging problems by focusing on a target audience and working backward to find a solution. This can be especially useful in solving complex problems that are ill-defined or completely unknown. According to the Hasso-Platner Institute of Design at Stanford University (more commonly known as the d.school), there are five stages to design thinking: 

It was just a simple note — four words on an index card that I scribbled in Sharpie and tacked to the wall of our agency studio: 

Last March, the role of the higher education marketer and communicator changed in an instant. Long-term planning went out the door, sacrificed for just keeping up with day-to-day decision-making and pandemic communications. Institutions had to shift to remote instruction overnight. Residence halls emptied. Admission offices had to enroll a class without the ability to hold in-person events for admitted students. All communication with internal and external audiences shifted to virtual. The demands on higher ed marketers became very near-term focused.