BRAND STRATEGY / CREATIVE DIRECTION

Learn with Purpose

Transforming a regional underdog into national competitor

Despite 40+ years of transformational innovation, community service and growth, the University of Colorado Denver continued to struggle with low awareness in an increasingly competitive regional higher education market.

The time had arrived to stand up and stand out.

Approach

Changing this involved an extensive research and discovery effort with students, alumni and community leaders. The insights from these sessions helped our in-house marketing and creative teams develop a new, unified brand platform, refreshed identity system and robust messaging framework.

Key stakeholders, including CU Denver’s loudest skeptics, were engaged and inspired via an exhaustive strategy of internal communications, presentations and workshops.

A bold, integrated campaign followed — the first in the university's history — to successfully transform this local underdog into a national competitor.

Insight

CU Denver’s students know what they want, and who they want to become. They have purpose, and view CU Denver as their partner in taking the next step.

Impact

Results were overwhelmingly positive, boosting audience interest and awareness and contributing to a 5% overall enrollment growth, 27% increase in organic search and 200% increase in mobile traffic.

Additionally, the campaign won a Peak Design Award from the Colorado chapter of the American Marketing Association, and was a Webby Award finalist for its campaign microsite.