For the past three years I worked for Hillel at Stanford University, the foundation for Jewish life on campus. As the Jewish student life coordinator my primary responsibilities were creating communities of engagement, empowering student leaders through mentoring and leadership development opportunities, and envisioning and implementing out-of-the-box programmatic initiatives for the Stanford Jewish community.
The marketing requirements for Hillel differ somewhat from the typical four P's. The product we provide is meaningful Jewish experience. The price is students' personal time. To ensure the financial stability of the organization, we must provide a high quality, high impact product for the students to 'consume.' Based upon those experiences, the development/fund raising team can then engage parents, alumni, and community, encouraging them to donate for the sustainability of programmatic initiatives and the sustainability of the organization.
This blog is a forum for me to explore some of my marketing and advertising initiatives. To increase the visual impact of my marketing initiatives, I taught myself Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I supplement many of my case studies with the graphic design work I did to visually highlight the thought processes behind the marketing. Click the images to view them in full size.
Case Study: L'Chaim Gala
Primary Goal: Create an event for the end of the year to celebrate as a community.
In 2007 I created the L'Chaim Gala, an evening of dinner, dancing, and reflection on the previous year. It was an attempt to create a community tradition as a senior send-off as well as an opportunity to recognize student leaders who had contributed their time and hard work. At the end of each class year Hillel conducts a survey to assess student interest in program offerings and measure students' feeling of 'community.' Analysis of the results told us that students demanded fewer programs at higher quality. Assessing further, we determined that the best way to achieve high quality programs was to develop staff run initiatives supplemented by student participation. We devised a two tier method of programming. As a staff, we enabled and empowered students to creatively and actively coordinate their programmatic opportunities for the community while for our bigger publicity events that would specifically develop our Hillel brand would be headed by us.
To create publicity and buzz about the event we took on five modes of advertising: email, Facebook, word of mouth, tabling, and fliers. I established a committee of students to oversee the advertising, taking into account appropriate times and locations. In addition, although there was no cost for the event, we simulated demand by encouraging students to RSVP and reserve a ticket to the event.
This is the most recent flier from the second annual L'Chaim Gala. The intention of the flier was to create a visually appealing advertisement that could compete with other similar events on campus such as fraternity parties, lectures, and movie screenings. Visually, the image and bright colors are attractive and interesting while the dancing silhouettes and instruments draw the eye to the "Featuring TGIFunk," one of the most well-known and well-liked student bands on campus. You can see the consistency of the flier in relation to the previous year's which was intentional to begin to create a brand for the L'Chaim Gala, both in the mind and the eye. Students expressed to me that they noticed that carryover in idea and it helped them to recall their experiences at the event the year before. Below is the flier from the First Annual L'Chaim Gala in 2007. In creating the flier I focused on providing the highlights of evening, positioning those most attractive to students (Dinner, Live Music, and Dancing) in the middle where the lines of the rainbows draw the eye, while keeping those interesting but secondary most in the periphery (Senior and Leadership Recognition Ceremony).
Outcomes: In 2008, attendance at the L'Chaim Gala increased by over 25 attendees from 2007, partially as a result of the creation of the L'Chaim Gala brand. Student excitement for the event began to bubble two months before it began with students initiating conversations with me to develop the planning committee. Additionally, Hillel has committed to the L'Chaim Gala for the foreseeable future by mentioning it as one of three Signature Events that Hillel will provide for the campus community each year. The other two, a student-faculty dinner and Jewish culture week, were also both organized and executed for the first time in 2007-2008 with me as a the leader for both initiatives.
In 2007 I created the L'Chaim Gala, an evening of dinner, dancing, and reflection on the previous year. It was an attempt to create a community tradition as a senior send-off as well as an opportunity to recognize student leaders who had contributed their time and hard work. At the end of each class year Hillel conducts a survey to assess student interest in program offerings and measure students' feeling of 'community.' Analysis of the results told us that students demanded fewer programs at higher quality. Assessing further, we determined that the best way to achieve high quality programs was to develop staff run initiatives supplemented by student participation. We devised a two tier method of programming. As a staff, we enabled and empowered students to creatively and actively coordinate their programmatic opportunities for the community while for our bigger publicity events that would specifically develop our Hillel brand would be headed by us.
To create publicity and buzz about the event we took on five modes of advertising: email, Facebook, word of mouth, tabling, and fliers. I established a committee of students to oversee the advertising, taking into account appropriate times and locations. In addition, although there was no cost for the event, we simulated demand by encouraging students to RSVP and reserve a ticket to the event.
This is the most recent flier from the second annual L'Chaim Gala. The intention of the flier was to create a visually appealing advertisement that could compete with other similar events on campus such as fraternity parties, lectures, and movie screenings. Visually, the image and bright colors are attractive and interesting while the dancing silhouettes and instruments draw the eye to the "Featuring TGIFunk," one of the most well-known and well-liked student bands on campus. You can see the consistency of the flier in relation to the previous year's which was intentional to begin to create a brand for the L'Chaim Gala, both in the mind and the eye. Students expressed to me that they noticed that carryover in idea and it helped them to recall their experiences at the event the year before. Below is the flier from the First Annual L'Chaim Gala in 2007. In creating the flier I focused on providing the highlights of evening, positioning those most attractive to students (Dinner, Live Music, and Dancing) in the middle where the lines of the rainbows draw the eye, while keeping those interesting but secondary most in the periphery (Senior and Leadership Recognition Ceremony).
Outcomes: In 2008, attendance at the L'Chaim Gala increased by over 25 attendees from 2007, partially as a result of the creation of the L'Chaim Gala brand. Student excitement for the event began to bubble two months before it began with students initiating conversations with me to develop the planning committee. Additionally, Hillel has committed to the L'Chaim Gala for the foreseeable future by mentioning it as one of three Signature Events that Hillel will provide for the campus community each year. The other two, a student-faculty dinner and Jewish culture week, were also both organized and executed for the first time in 2007-2008 with me as a the leader for both initiatives.
Printed Postcards
Two postcards I designed and created that were sent out to over 2000 alumni and community members. As a non-profit organization, Hillel relies on it's constituents for much of the budget. These postcards were designed more for 'friend raising' rather than 'fund raising'. The light tone of the first card plays on the nostalgia of alumni and community, especially since many of these constituents when they were students at Stanford did not have a Hillel House, but only two rooms in the basement of another building on campus. I intentionally made the house the focus to encourage reminiscence for what Jewish life on campus could have been with a solely Jewish space. Consequently, our next fund raising solicitation exceeded expectations.
Texted Based Fliers
Some of my more text based fliers which were distributed on the Stanford University campus, via email to students and the local community, and printed in the Stanford Daily Newspaper.
Graphic Design Project: JSN
I was asked to create this flier for a class being taught by the Jewish Study Network in Palo Alto, CA. Much of their advertising had been somewhat flat. I designed this flier to specifically step outside the nostalgic perceptions of religious community which can sometimes be stale and boring. As a result of this flier more people attended than expected and the Jewish Study Network then went on to hire a part-time graphic design and marketing person specifically to continue to produce high quality advertisements.
Graphic Design: Album Covers
In my spare time while working at Stanford I played lead trombone in the Stanford Jazz Orchestra. In 2007 I helped to publish SJO's third CD. Here are two different drafts for a CD cover for the album.
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