Lead with the Story

What is a story? It can take many forms; a longform narrative, a conversation, a reflection on an experience, or a captivating photograph. Schools are rich with these stories. When told well, these stories celebrate the campus community, connect alumni, and engage prospective donors. But figuring out how to tell these stories to an audience ranging vastly in age and interests can be a daunting task. Unfortunately what we have noticed is a tendency to take a fragmented approach: commission the story for the magazine, a different team to create a video for an event, and yet another creating social media for promotion. The more strategic approach is to put the story at the core and create a framework to share it in meaningful ways to your community. 

The Framework

To design a framework, define the core story, key players, and potential connections. When we created an admission campaign for Noble and Greenough school, we defined the school’s pillars and key differentiators, including proximity to Boston, experiential learning, and how students are willing to take risks. These pillars defined the foundation of the framework used by the internal communications team to cast students and experiences. From there we intentionally planned how each story would be told across video, print, and organic social media. This story plan was the foundation for the creative direction of video, photography, and illustration. It helped determine how to showcase students based on the medium. For example, a student would be photographed for a story about athletics for the viewbook and then illustrated for a piece about the chess club.

Similarly for a campaign we developed for RPI, we looked at the key fundraising goals and developed a story list to cast the subjects across the different channels and showcase the interconnectedness. 

Connecting with the community

Both of these examples include a primary target audience, prospective students and donors. However, we work on many stories that potentially have a much broader reach yet each channel has a defined primary audience. 

For example, celebrating the anniversary of a center or program is an opportunity to connect with multiple audiences: a video for donors honoring the history and accomplishments with a call-to-action for the future; magazine articles highlighting people who made a difference for the alumni base; events recognizing the staff and faculty involved; and social media promoting the unique experience for prospective students. 

Focusing on the story and defining your primary audiences is the foundation for content strategy and creative direction to follow. Putting this work first is a more strategic approach and maximizes efforts upfront. This is crucial for budgets and lean teams juggling multiple projects. 

Leveraging the content

Speaking of small teams and lean budgets, it is critical to consider how to leverage one story across multiple communications. It doesn’t have to be about a major milestone, it can be a profile about an alumni or an engaging topic. The important aspect is to expand the narrative.

For example,

• For the admission campaign for The Park School, we simultaneously shot photography and video to capture the same experiences for the print viewbook, website video, and social media ads. 
• UAlbany captured behind the scenes video for the latest magazine cover story to give the readers a richer experience.
• Sewanee put a call-to-action on social media to its community for the feature story, “Mountain Music;” urged the President to write about his music experience at Sewanee; and licensed the cover artwork for posters. 
• Georgetown McDonough School of Business hosted a webinar moderated by a faculty member with an expert alumni panel that was later shared in the print and digital version of Georgetown Business.
• The redesign of UMass Magazine included a stand alone website with complementary digital content and a brand identity for social media posts.   

Creative direction

The story (or pillars) is the core. The casting defines the framework, the content strategy maps the plan, and the creative direction focuses the story for the unique audience. Custom directed visuals build a stronger connection for the story and enhance brand alignment. Determine the story that needs to be told and the visual direction and curate samples from the illustrator, photographer, or videographer to direct them to capture the story for the appropriate audience. 

Doing the work upfront streamlines your efforts resulting in a more cohesive narrative overall. Consider:

• Capturing video and photography simultaneously for additional digital content, behind-the-scenes experiences, or alignment across mediums.
• Selecting and art directing multiple photographers across the country (or world) for a cohesive story.
• Working with an illustrator when original portrait photography is not an option or when a story depends heavily on existing imagery. 
• Commissioning motion along with the 2-d illustration work.

While there will always be a call to speak to numerous audiences, determining your primary target audience for each communication and directing the stories to engage them is crucial for effective storytelling and maximum impact.