Chosen because Zehno won six 2019 Brilliance Awards for their client Ursuline Academy of New Orleans. InspirED learned how it was done from Dr. Karen T. McNay, president of Ursuline Academy.

“From the inspirational messaging, to the unique approach to photography, to the wonderful illustrations and graphics, this entire package made me KNOW this school. And it made me want to know more. Every time I opened a piece of the package, I became more and more impressed.”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Zehno and Ursuline Academy of New Orleans took the 2019 Brilliance Awards by storm winning Gold for Enrollment/Admissions Package; Gold for Enrollment Video, Outsourced; Gold for Paid Advertising; Gold for Out of the Box Concept; Gold for Website, Outsourced; and Bronze for Still Photography, Outsourced.

Ursuline Academy’s President Dr. Karen T. McNay and Zehno’s Creative Director Kathy Cain explain how it was done.

The challenge

Founded in 1727, Ursuline Academy of New Orleans is known for its firsts. It’s the nation’s first all-girls’ Catholic school. It launched the nation’s first female pharmacist, first female photographer and many other trailblazers.

“But its brand hadn’t kept up with communicating its girl power of today,” says Kathy Cain, Zehno’s Creative Director. “So many prospective families misperceived Ursuline as just plain old.”

Zehno’s challenge was to make the oldest all-girls’ Catholic school in America relevant to girls now, and shift the discussion from its musty history to its modern-day spirit.

Ursuline also needed to differentiate its educational experience — and elevate its academic reputation — in a crowded independent school market.

“Admissions apps are up 24%, open house registration increased 33% for elementary grades...”

— Dr. Karen T. McNay, President, Ursuline Academy

THE TRAILBLAZING CONCEPT

The “Blaze Brighter” creative concept updates this legacy by encouraging every modern-day girl of various talents, skills, and backgrounds to blaze her own trail. The school’s curricular focus — treating STEM and the arts as equals in a market where competitor schools focus on one or the other — preps grads to become state senators, Fulbright scholars, inventors, C-suite leaders, and more.

The “Blaze Brighter” admissions campaign leads with a parent-centered microsite that shows parents the curriculum at each grade level; a video focused on trailblazer spirit instead of facts; photography and video assets to feed a year of social media; and quality print.

“One of the most intriguing aspects of this admissions video is that it isn’t about the school at all; prospective families are buying into a network of similar values, work ethic, confidence, and capacity. Just exceptional — sign me up to be an Ursuline girl! ”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Brand Development Requires Buy-In

Ursuline Academy’s President Dr. Karen T. McNay had to convince the Board of Trustees, alumnae, and faculty that branding is important.

“As I talked with brand agencies,'“ says Dr. McNay, “I started to understand how important it was for us to have a brand for Ursuline so that people could recognize us. We had tried to do that through logos and mascots, but that left something out: it didn’t portray our message.”

After choosing Zehno, Dr. McNay discussed the brand initiative with all constituent groups and included them in the process so that all voices were heard. Dr. McNay says, “Everybody has to be on the same page. It’s not going to help to embark on something like this and then decide you’re not going to use it and not change your brand. That's a disaster.”

Brand Development Takes Time

Ursuline’s brand initiative began in May 2018, which included phases for discovery and brand strategy, surveys, message platform, creative concept, flagship content, and lead communications tools. The brand campaign launched in September 2019.

Brand development is an Investment

“Ursuline invested significantly in this branding effort, allocating 4% of our operating budget on the branding initiative.”

— Dr. Karen T. McNay, President, Ursuline Academy

“Many of our leaders didn’t want to invest the money,” says Dr. McNay. “They said you just need to change your colors and logo.”

Often private school leadership believes that marketing is an “extra expense.” With Dr. McNay’s guidance, Ursuline’s leadership blazed their own trail and embraced the concept of branding and marketing.

“Ursuline invested significantly in this branding effort, allocating 4% of our operating budget on the branding initiative — an investment that was approved by the board,” says Dr. McNay. “Our total communications budget represents 5% of our operating budget, with a multi-year plan to dedicate 4% to brand implementation each year.”

“Without all of that research, it would have been just hunches: ‘This is what we think people think.’”

— Dr. Karen T. McNay, President, Ursuline Academy

brand development is a process

To bring the creative concept to life, Zehno started by creating flagship content. A casting call collected stories from all ages, and a multi-day video and photo shoot captured the unique ways Ursuline girls lead and learn.

The team worked together to create multiple assets — shooting stills and videos during the same shoot — and chose three types of photography to show the ways Ursuline girls learn and articulate themselves:

Team-based environmental scenes with girls collaborating on STEM and arts projects — from building robots and designing prosthetic boots to painting self-portraits and acting onstage.
Still life photography of projects that show how girls take ownership of their ideas and express themselves.
Black and white portraits depicting girls of all ages as fearless trailblazers.

Ursuline teamwork-overhead.jpeg — 1. Team-Based Environmental Scenes

Results and Recognition — Beyond Expectations

Dr. McNay says, “Four months into launching our new brand campaign, we started seeing results: admissions apps are up 24%, open house registration increased 33% for elementary grades and our admissions campaign won four gold awards and one bronze award from the InspirED School Marketers’ Brilliance Awards and a gold award from Educational Advertising Awards.”

“Before we were talking about what other schools were doing. Now we’re talking about how wonderfully our school is presenting itself. Our alumnae are proud of how we’ve told the story because this brand also represents them. They’re trailblazers, too.”

— Dr. Karen T. McNay, President, Ursuline Academy

The branding initiative rallied everybody together with a focus to discuss themselves. Dr. McNay believes there was great work in the surveys, the focus groups, the feedback to faculty and staff and to the Board of Trustees about how people perceived them. “Without all of that research,“ says Dr. McNay, “It would have been just hunches: ‘This is what we think people think.’”

Ursuline has great pride in how they present themselves that they didn’t have before. “Before we were talking about what other schools were doing,” says Dr. McNay. “Now we’re talking about how wonderfully our school is presenting itself. Our alumnae are proud of how we’ve told the story because this brand also represents them. They’re trailblazers, too.”

For the first time, Ursuline has other schools coming to them, wanting to talk about their brand. Building their pride internally has given them momentum to continuously embrace more best practices, to be cutting edge and to push themselves forward.

“When I arrived seven years ago,” says Dr. McNay, “I would have done anything to get my parents talking about the great things at Ursuline. Now they’re overwhelming us with praise about our marketing and how we’ve portrayed the girls so confidently.”

Advice For Small Schools

For the smaller schools, Dr. McNay thinks you’re never going to have the expertise or objective point of view on staff that they got by hiring Zehno. “Can you gather information from exit interviews and other things to know why students might choose to leave or not come to this academy?” asks Dr. McNay. “Yes, but it’s better for somebody to sit outside of your community and give you objective feedback, instead of just accepting the loudest voice as the common opinion of who you are. We got a view of who we are without all the preconceived notions.”

Advice for ALL Others

“We would only change one thing,” says Dr. McNay. “We would have done it sooner.”

*“The copy. The colors. The emotive spirit. It all comes together in these ads. Sign my daughters up!”*

— Brilliance Awards Judge’s Comment

TEAM
Dr. Karen T. McNay, President, Ursuline Academy of New Orleans
Christy Zurcher, Communications Director, Ursuline Academy of New Orleans
Kathy Cain, Creative Director, Zehno
Clare Hall, Account Manager, Zehno
Mary Louise Killen, Senior Designer, Zehno
Shannon Seyler, Strategy Director, Zehno
Shane Shanks, Editorial Director, Zehno
Mary Sullivan, Production Manager, Zehno
Megan Youngblood, Editorial Manager, Zehno
Lauren Sanders, Art Director Consultant, Zehno
Jarrell Fudickar, Creative Director/Producer
Jonathan Chapman, Photographer/Videographer
Daymon Gardner, Photographer
Margie Tillman, Illustrator
Heather Weaver, Microsite Developer
Rachel Wilson, Video Scriptwriter

See All the 2019 Winners

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Liza Fisher Norman

Master Electrician, InspirED School Marketers

Master Electrician isn’t just a fun title for me. It’s how I feel about sparking school marketers to do their best work, connecting them to one another, and helping to make their jobs easier. After working with close to 100 schools in the firm I founded — Turnaround Marketing Communications — I realized that school marketers needed a place where they could find brilliant ideas and brain food and feel supported. InspirED School Marketers was born in 2013 to fill that void, and with the help of my fabulous Best Boy, Rob, we are on a quest to make InspirED a resource you can't live without.

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