MILWAUKEE — The Office of Marketing and Communication at Marquette University has received a Circle of Excellence Silver Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for “Connections,” a commercial spot aimed at those both familiar and unfamiliar with Marquette.
The Circle of Excellence is CASE’s premier awards program for higher education marketing communication work. This year’s competition garnered more than 4,400 applications from members in 33 countries, and the work was evaluated by judges who are peers in higher education marketing communications.
“This is the third Marquette University commercial that has been honored with a CASE award, and it’s wonderful to see our marketing and video teams continue to be honored by their peers across our industry,” said Lynn Griffith, chief marketing and communication officer at Marquette University. “Not only was ‘Connections’ compelling and evocative of the lifelong connections our students find at Marquette, but it was also produced in a way that it could be adapted into multiple versions across platforms, effectively turning one video production into a full marketing campaign.”
Lauren Burke, director of video at Marquette, worked with Circle Pictures to create a video that tells an upbeat, fun and emotional story about one of the university’s key brand messages — the power of connections and finding your people at Marquette. The video features four intertwining main character storylines showcasing real Marquette students, faculty, staff and alumni. In each story, a student enters a new situation for the first time and is met by new people and experiences. Over the course of “Connections,” viewers see the progression of each relationship and in an epic final shot, we see all four students connecting with each other.
“This was a nice way of showing different student experiences that then join at the end,” the judges said. “Additionally, the video had nice rhythm and we liked how authentic this felt with the different student stories.”
“Connections” was written and designed to work as both one whole story as well as four separate individual student stories, segmented into 15-second videos for use in advertisement buys. The spot was used heavily in advertising campaigns that achieved over 3.3 million views and has been shared across all Marquette’s social media platforms resulting in more than 52,000 views and almost 4,000 engagements; the 30-second version has been shown regularly during this season’s nationally televised Marquette basketball games with a viewership of nearly 12 million; and the 15-second versions were used in a recent four-week brand campaign on streaming television, yielding an impressive video completion rate of 98.92% over almost 253,000 impressions—nearly 30% above the benchmark average.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is the global association for professionals in advancement — alumni relations, communications, development, marketing, and advancement services — who share the goal of championing education to transform lives and society. District Five, the Great Lakes District, encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and includes over 400 member institutions and more than 2,500 representatives.
About Marquette University
Marquette University is a Catholic, Jesuit university located near the heart of downtown Milwaukee that offers a comprehensive range of majors in 11 nationally and internationally recognized colleges and schools. Through the formation of hearts and minds, Marquette prepares our 11,100 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and professional students to lead, excel and serve as agents of positive change. And, we deliver results. Ranked in the top 20% of national universities, Marquette is recognized for its undergraduate teaching, innovation and career preparation as the sixth-best university in the country for job placement. Our focus on student success and immersive, personalized learning experiences encourages students to think critically and engage with the world around them. When students graduate with a Marquette degree, they are truly prepared and called to Be The Difference.
