York College of Pennsylvania
Like all great
colleges, great
brands evolve.
The Opportunity
Students attend college to prepare themselves for successful careers. York College of Pennsylvania puts students and their education to work from day one, so they think critically, learn actively, and graduate ready.
Having just celebrated their 50th anniversary, and well into the silent phase of a comprehensive campaign, we reunited with our friends at York to look first at how to evolve the institutional brand, and then how to best align it to what would become the Fall 2020 public launch of "Evolve: The Campaign for York College."
The Solution
Four years ago, we prepared an institutional marketing plan for York College. Building off that work, we evolved their brand strategy and platform - one that campus communicators at all levels could adopt, apply, and, of course, evolve.
We then created a brand anthem video, a campaign video, and a microsite to foster genuine engagement and connection. This helped to minimize barriers to giving, making it easier than ever to support York's campaign
SimpsonScarborough has been a key partner of York College of Pennsylvania for over six years. Many organizations claim to provide a partner-centric approach, but SimpsonScarborough truly embodies it. Their team becomes an extension of your team, bringing all of the knowledge and power of the agency with them.”
Scope of Work
Brand platform, audience personas, and messaging toolkit: positioning statement, brand pillars, personality, tone, and foundational elements; audience personas with 3–5 messaging themes each, in addition to the academic profile, location, pain points, and decision-making factors; elevator pitch, boilerplate language, social descriptors, website meta descriptions, and a bank of headlines.
Brand anthem & campaign videos: concept development, scriptwriting, production planning and scheduling, on-location production, and post-production, including master videos, 30-second cut downs, and b-roll.
Campaign microsite: content strategy, architecture, page types, wireframes, UX/UI, front-end development, graphic design, copywriting, testing, and launching.
The Results
Education and experiences at York College of Pennsylvania lead to passion and purpose. While that’s an evergreen element of their brand, by evolving how they tell that story, to whom they tell it, and why, they are more capable of meeting people where they are today, while showing them where York College can take them tomorrow.
