College of Southern Maryland

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We’ve hand-selected these case studies to show you our range and depth in nonprofit marketing and advertising. As you wade through, you will see that we’ve got the market research and brand development chops to transform the College of Southern Maryland.

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On this page, you’ll find the case studies we’ve selected especially for you. All of them showcase the talent, passion, and ingenuity we put into everything we do. Reach out if you have any questions!

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Aims Community College

Defining the voice of a community pillar.

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Aims Community College

Refreshing a Community College Brand with Lofty Aims

Aims Community College shatters the common perception of “community college,” with multiple locations and state-of-the-art facilities—including commercial-grade flight simulators, maker spaces, and a new community welcome center, to name a few features. But it lacked a cohesive brand to support its vision as a “first choice” and recognized leader in student success.

The Strategy

With an initial scope of work to analyze the current Aims brand, idfive started in a familiar place: with research, consisting of:

a brand communications audit of Aims’ existing messaging architecture, brand assets, and marketing materials.
comparative analysis of three competing colleges’ brand attributes.
an AudienceScan to determine audience sentiment (actual and desired) using surveys, interviews, and a review of existing research.
a Brand Perception Workshop to engage internal stakeholders to shape brand attributes, platform, and messaging architecture.

The final deliverables included branding, a new tagline, a refreshed mascot, a viewbook, and a brand anthem video.

Branding

After presenting our findings to the president and her cabinet, our scope of work expanded to include developing a revised Aims Brand Guide. With a refreshed brand promise and platform (including supports), a revised logo, and reenergized voice and tone, the College wanted a tagline that could succinctly express the new brand’s position. Working collaboratively with the Aims MarComm team, we launched a research-based initiative to identify a new Aims tagline

— a process that started with brainstorming sessions and ended with surveys and focus groups with major campus stakeholders.

The winner—All In—is best described by our focus group participants: “Catchy, and easy to remember.” “it’s everything we are.” “It’s an allegory and delivers a broader message.” “It’s what the Aims community is.” “Put a stamp on it.”

Aims Red

Aims Black

Aims Slate

Evolution Blue

Corn Husk

Fountain

Design

Arty the Aardvark has come to represent comfort, familiarity, friendship, and kindness. For example, at Arty’s Pantry, students receive free food and basic supplies.

Since Arty isn’t your stereotypical college athletics cheerleader (Aims doesn’t have sports) the redesigned Arty needed to be more than just another pissed off mascot. He needed to be a positive, energetic personification of the institution and community.

Through a highly collaborative and iterative process, Arty emerged—he’s a little bit “dad bod,” a lot “can-do spirit,” and All In.

Viewbook

A refreshed college brand requires a bold, new recruitment publication. We wanted Aims’ new viewbook to connect with prospective students on an emotional level—a critical goal for the admissions team—while also communicating the College’s distinctions with bold visuals and user-focused content. The viewbook was also the first embodiment of the new brand guidelines we had developed for Aims, and aided in expanding on the brand’s look and feel.

To ensure the viewbook is compelling, a unique peek-a-boo cover was designed which opens to an exciting spread explaining what it means to be All In.

Video

For Aims Community College, creating a video that flips the script on who they are and what they offer was a critical next step in rallying a local and national audience of perspective and current students, staff, and the community. After partnering with idfive on an award-winning brand, “All In” tagline, mascot, and marketing materials, Aims possessed a more cohesive and effective messaging platform to articulate the Aims advantage.

With a 90-second montage of students in experiential learning environments at multiple locations and state-of-the-art facilities—including commercial-grade flight simulators, maker spaces, and a new community welcome center, idfive was able to help Aims shatter the common perception of “community college.” Our video production team helped Aims go “All In” and be recognized as a first choice option and leader in higher education.

Carroll Community College

Conveying the scope of a community titan.

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Carroll Community College

The Challenge

Carroll Community College is a national leader in educational and career outcomes. But its website’s challenging navigation didn’t reflect how student-centric the College is, or communicate the campus’s physical beauty and strong sense of community. The new site needed to speak effectively to Carroll’s diverse audiences while being manageable within the College’s limited resources.

70+

Carroll credit programs and transfer programs

You love projects where the client’s strength is the work’s challenge. Carroll serves audiences from age 4 to 94. The site needed to speak to everyone.

PETER TORAN

LEAD STRATEGIST, iDFIVE

The Strategy

Our comprehensive Discover 360™ process included interviews with representatives from Carroll’s many stakeholders, including College leadership, staff, degree-seeking and continuing education students and their parents, and high school counselors. From those conversations, a very clear picture emerged of an institution that defied the preconceptions that many have of community colleges. People spoke of the quality of their educational experience, often citing how their time at Carroll — and the faculty who mentored them — far exceeded their experiences at four-year institutions. They highlighted the physical beauty of a campus that enriched the community with accessible cultural events and competitive collegiate athletics.

We learned about Carroll’s range, from degree programs to personal enrichment courses, from skill-based training and certifications to the Summer!Kids@Carroll program. In the words of a staff member, Carroll “serves everyone from 4 to 94.” A “Find What’s Right For Me” page offers guidance for visitors to find the learning programs based on academic, career or personal goals.

We knew that the redesigned site needed to convey Carroll’s unique value proposition: a four-year college experience (or better) with an affordable two-year college tuition. But the project didn’t end with the design and build of an easy-to-navigate, visually appealing website. The Carroll team needed assurances that they could manage the site in WordPress on their own post-launch. idfive assessed what resources were available and what it would take to keep the site fresh. Armed with that knowledge, we built an intuitive CMS and provided a thorough CMS training session that was recorded for future reference and ongoing instruction.

Development

Along with ease of backend management, we integrated content from 25 Live, Acalog, and Active Directory. The goal being a seamless experience for users that also prevents duplicate content management for the Carroll team.

The Result

Carroll’s redesigned site provides users with intuitive navigation that meets the needs of its diverse audiences — from traditional college-age degree seekers to mid-career changers to retirees seeking personal enrichment. Design elements subtly reflect the College’s iconic architecture, with photography that captures the campus’s rolling hills and welcoming vibe.

A University of Maryland graduate in academic regalia applauds during a commencement ceremony

University of Maryland College Park

Producing a platform to highlight people.

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University of Maryland College Park

The Challenge

The flagship state institution of Maryland, the University of Maryland – College Park is a vibrant community of educators, researchers, artists, athletes, and scholars. However, its main website did not communicate the energy of the campus and the opportunities afforded to Terps in Maryland and around the world. University of Maryland is a large university, and the site acted as a directory for users to move to various sub-school and admission portals—at the expense of the emotional connection and spirit of the institution. The challenge was to create a roadmap for visitors to find the content they need, while providing context and motivation to explore other facets of this world-class public research and innovation university.

The Solution

Working in close collaboration with The University of Maryland, idfive enhanced homepage design concepts that were created in-house by the university marketing team. We conducted usability studies through a mix of in-person and online methodologies to ensure a strong UX/UI experience and enhanced design elements to showcase student stories, campus life, and achievements. The result is a unique homepage design that features animated “cards” that correspond with main navigation elements as a user scrolls down the page, providing visual context and interesting callouts about the institution’s highlights. The responsive design makes accessing information on all screen sizes intuitive and it positions The University of Maryland as a preeminent institution dedicated to fostering talent, knowledge and creativity.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Reckoning with the past to reshape the future.

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St. Mary’s College of Maryland

The Challenge

When St. Mary’s College of Maryland uncovered a direct connection to slavery, they saw an opportunity to reckon with their past and honor the resilience of those kept in bondage. They built a commemorative with the hopes of sparking a dialogue. But first, they would need to bring people together to have those conversations—during a pandemic.

193

Slave advertisements and runaway notices used to create the poetry for the commemorative.

Strategy

During an archaeological survey to build a new stadium complex, the College team uncovered artifacts indicating evidence of 19th-century slave quarters on the campus. St. Mary’s leadership engaged the campus community to document the discovery, recognize its impact, and create a lasting memorial that would view slavery from the perspective of the enslaved.

With a commemorative structure inspired by “ghost frame” architecture and augmented by erasure poetry drawn from actual slave advertisements and runaway slave notices, the project compels visitors to literally fill in the blanks and confront what our shared past means to our collective future.

When COVID-19 forced the Commemorative Dedication to be reimagined, idfive helped bring the memorial’s experience to a virtual audience.

We developed website content, social media assets, and a feature-length dedication video for the virtual unveiling, bringing audiences closer to the story of the commemorative and the people it honors. St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s Commemorative project was rooted in discovery even before idfive became a part of it.

Social Media Promotion

To help promote the virtual dedication event, idfive created a teaser video for the media and for the College’s Instagram account.

Conclusion

The virtual dedication ceremony received coverage from major media outlets, including NPR, PBS Newshour, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Baltimore Sun.

The Commemorative videos and webpages helped turn the discovery of slave quarters on St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s campus into an immersive learning experience — one that makes the invisible visible and gives voice to those silenced by racism.

A woman in a scarf smiles while chatting with colleagues at a networking event

Bloomberg School of Public Health

Inviting the world to 100 dinners.

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Bloomberg School of Public Health

The Challenge

To mark the 100th anniversary of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), the school sought to connect its vast community with its enduring legacy—and each other. With an alumni base of thousands scattered throughout the world, bringing people together proved to be a massive, coordinated effort. The school created a series of local events—the Centennial 100 Dinners—inviting alumni, faculty, students and friends of the school to meet up with those nearby to celebrate the school, its mission and their contributions to public health.

The Solution

Communications Strategy
Website Design and Development
Copywriting
Graphic Design
DIY Toolkit Design and Development
Card Game to Stimulate Engagement (Cards for Humanity)

Happy woman gives child a piggy-back ride

One House at a Time

Marking the turning point for urban renewal.

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One House at a Time

REBUILDING A NON-PROFIT BRAND FROM THE GROUND UP

One House at a Time (One House) is a non-profit that transforms vacant properties, using receivership and other resources, to improve Baltimore neighborhoods. To propel their mission forward, idfive partnered on a brand gut-rehab that would serve to breathe new life into their identity.

Strategy

For their new brand, we focused on telling a simple, recognizable story.

One House helps rehabilitate neighborhoods throughout Baltimore. And they’ll continue their mission—Rebuilding Baltimore—until urban blight is replaced by community.

The brand includes a new logo, tagline, and identity guidelines. Additionally idfive provided the brand with stationary, an email signature and email assets, ‘For Sale’ signage, a PPT template for stakeholder presentations, and retractable banners.

Identity

One House At A Time is a trusted advocate and catalyst for change in Baltimore, fostering a better quality of life for families and communities by transferring vacant properties to qualified buyers.

Rebuilding Baltimore is a poignant, memorable tagline that signifies One House’s commitment to safe, thriving communities and city life.

The color palette is inspired by familiar building materials found in quintessential Baltimore rowhomes, with a modern spin that alludes to a bright future.

The logo mimics the shape of the row houses being renovated throughout the city, and also serves to represent a single brick shown from a bird’s eye view. This symbolism nods to the One House mission of Rebuilding Baltimore—one house, or even one brick, at a time.

The letterforms fill the row home shape with new life, but are not fully enclosed, representing that once a home is filled, their work isn’t done.

The tagline nestled beneath the logo is intentionally placed to mimic Baltimore’s iconic stoops.

Putting It All Together

A visual identity and guidelines were developed and also informed an initial set of marketing tools that would allow the One House team to implement the brand consistently across communications and campaign materials.

The result is a brand that highlights a vibrant Baltimore and a hopeful community, enabled by One House and their incredible efforts. And when all used together, the brand package reinforces their credibility as a nonprofit and a trusted partner between lawmakers, buyers, and Baltimore.

University of Hartford

Banding together under a bold umbrella.

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University of Hartford

Designing the Cross-Platform Launch of a University's Bold Strategic Vision

The University of Hartford created their UHart Start Strategic Action Plan as a guiding light for the next five years, then they partnered with idfive to turn their action plan into a rallying cry that would generate excitement and share their vision with stakeholders and the community.

The Strategy

After analyzing UHart’s strategic plan, idfive got to work by reorganizing the plan’s contents to lead with a shared vision in its realized state, and then use goals and objectives as proof points, creating a compelling narrative for the next five years and beyond. We also reformatted the action plan into a glossy, full-color 20-page booklet that puts the University’s future in the actual hands of key stakeholders, as well as a bi-fold mailer summarizing the plan for additional audiences. Finally, we built a robust and engaging landing page hosted on the main site that detailed UHart Start’s story while granting full transparency into the plan’s details and responsibilities.

Print Collateral

It’s nice to have a plan, but policy and strategic documentation can often look and feel sterile and calculating. Our job for UHart was to make it fun, dynamic, and useful. We started by remixing the UHart Start plan into a 20-page booklet. Leading with a bold visual representation of the UHart community’s vision, the spread showcases each goal with flair. The result is a tangible representation of UHart’s promise.

For those in the extended UHart network who are curious but not directly involved in the strategic action plan, the mailbox still offered an opportunity to showcase the vision for their beloved institution in a way that still feels real. The mailer succinctly summarizes the plan with a call to participate and engage. But even more importantly, it delivers a physical reminder of the benefits of buy-in to a donor base that rose to the occasion with a 30% increase in unrestricted donations during 2020.

Landing page

UHart’s vibrant brand color palette and pattern library beckon users to dig into strategic action and find out how to engage in key initiatives. The website rewards curiosity and exploration by progressively disclosing information to increasingly specific user questions. Along the way, custom module designs keep things visually interesting as users progress from passing interest to downloading the fully ratified policy document.

The Result

Getting people excited and engaged with a strategic plan with just policy and strategic documentation can be herculean. Using the sum of its parts and remixing it into something exciting, compelling, and full of enthusiasm is how we did it.

Since deploying the landing page, the average time-spent-on-page was around 2:28, showcasing a higher-than-average engagement rate, rather than the average of 0:52.

2:28

Landing page engagement rate

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