The City College of New York | New York, NY
“We’re the place where Albert Einstein first presented his theory of general relativity outside of Europe. Our alumni discovered the polio vaccine and designed the Panama Canal. Our alumni have become Supreme Court Justices, world-renowned researchers, and award winning actors. We’re the City College of yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
–CCNY HOMEPAGE
background
Founded in 1847 as America’s first free institution of higher education, City College opened its doors as one of the nation’s great democratic experiments. With the advent of open enrollment in 1970 and CUNY’s increased role in governance, today’s incarnation of City sought a renewed identity and messaging system that positions it for the next century of vibrant prominence.
Our strategy: Don’t simply recapture the City of the past, but assert City College’s continued relevance today. From its inception through its heyday, those who excelled at City—including 11 Nobel Laureates—shared one common trait: they were strivers. Motivated, ambitious, hard-working, diverse, and gritty intellectuals-in-the-making.
Today’s City students possess the same will and wherewithal to convert a sliver of opportunity into a lifetime of success. So, we branded the transformative outcome of what happens when the City student—the striver—seizes the opportunity afforded by City College.
On the outside, City’s donor book is a humble journal designed to honor generations of strivers who arrived at the university with little more than a pencil and a notebook and left with a door-opening, horizon-widening education. Inside, alumni success stories surprise and inspire.
Shortly after the program launch, The Princeton Review named City College one of the nation’s “Best Value” colleges and universities, signaling that outsiders had begun taking notice of City’s properly positioned, one-of-a-kind story.
Following the implementation of this program, CCNY generated city-wide interest, and enrolled-student SAT scores increased by 50 points. Donor gifts also flooded in, far surpassing fundraising goals. What’s more, faculty members embraced the school’s new messaging, reporting that it provided greater cohesion around the college’s mission and attracted prominent professors and scholars to the faculty.
overview of our partnership
1. DISCOVERY + ANALYSIS
We started by talking in depth with CCNY administrators, faculty, staff, and students past and present about the City experience and the skill sets, careers, and extraordinary lives that follow.
2. INSIGHTS + IMPLICATIONS
Our comprehensive, confidential research findings report organized and analyzed the CCNY community’s perceptions, pride, and concerns about the university they know and love. It also offered a slate of recommendations for shaping and supporting current and future initiatives.
3. BRANDING + MARKETING
Bearing our discovery findings, CCNY’s unique goals, and the market context in mind, we created the “striver” Big Idea to guide all branding and messaging work to follow—from a university-wide viewbook to highly personalized donor pieces.
4. WORKSHOPPING + ADVICE
We worked with the CCNY admissions team to ensure that the new branding program was authentic and actionable and to create outreach strategies tailored to best-fit prospects.
5. EXECUTIVE COUNSEL + COMMUNICATIONS
Working with the president of the university, we created messaging for senior administrators to ensure that capital campaign communications resonated with external audiences and reinforced the new branding.
