Working on a pilot program requires much flexibility and the ability to embrace ambiguity. Among the most exciting challenges I have encountered center around branding the program. While our team has a strong internal mission and vision, articulating this has proven complex. Instead of following the more traditional methods of branding, I have approached branding in a more unique way by trying to understand Sprintensive in the context of the greater Middlebury enterprise. To inform my work, I conducted a series of stakeholder interviews with branding experts.
Communications Office: working with the Communications Office at MIIS, I was able to address the nuances of the Institute’s branding guidelines. Part of this learning process also included understanding how the branding hierarchy functions within the Middlebury family, including how to communicate to different audiences and which channels to use dependent upon the subject material.
Marketing & Creative Services: I worked with the Marketing and Creative Services office at Middlebury College to help frame Sprintensive in the context of internal versus external branding. Part of this process involved learning about how to strategically promote our pilot without having to address the bigger unknown parts of working on a pilot. This conversation also involved an intensive discussion about website development and how our team could work to track content in more creative ways in order to shape our brand through action. The first step in this process was a promotional news story that was distributed through the Middlebury marketing channels.
Digital Learning Commons: Finally, I worked with the Digital Learning Commons (DLC) at MIIS to learn how to develop brand content through social media platforms. Experts at the DLC shared ways to collaborate with preexisting social media groups at MIIS, including marketing through Twitter, sharing photos in the Instagram account, and using Facebook strategically. For the Facebook components specifically, it was recommended that I create both a “page” and a “group” for Sprintensive. The page would serve as a public space to share the stages of our progress, while the group would create interpersonal connection and conversation that could feed into content development for our future brand and marketing efforts.
