By President Cruz Rivera
I am pleased to share with you a preview of the new provisional marketing campaign that will launch across various media channels next week. It is intended to capture the bold and boundless future that I envision for NAU, our students, our communities and the steps we are taking to enhance equitable and accessible ways in which we deliver value to all those who we serve.
We are calling this campaign “provisional,” as we will be conducting a full review of our brand position later in the year, following the development of NAU’s Strategic Roadmap. The provisional campaign is inspired by the boundless possibilities and personalized togetherness that characterizes the way we teach, learn, create and engage, and was informed by input from a broad cross-section of the university community.
To be boundless, is a mindset. An attitude. A way of living.
Boundless are the stories of success waiting to be written…
By our students. Our faculty. Our staff. Our alumni. Our community. Together.
In a way that will forever shape their lives, and those around them.
Boundless is being able to see through tough problems with a shared spirit.
To the minds and hearts and passion of the people…
Who rise to the challenge and create the solutions we need now… For Arizona, and beyond.
It’s the way we transform bold vision into meaningful action.
Empower students to make their voices heard…
Endeavor to take teaching and learning into our communities… Together, on a journey to a more sustainable and inclusive worldview.
Boundless is the belief we have in each other.
And it’s the belief we have, in you.
As we all know, one of our true differentiators is the environment in which our students learn and our faculty create, and this sense of our surroundings is accentuated in our new creative campaign and the corresponding backup print and online materials through which we will continue to highlight inspiring stories about our staff, faculty and students—connecting these stories with the role we play in changing lives, our communities and the world around us. So, the campaign is infused with a sense of social purpose, which, per what I learned during the transition process I feel very strongly must be a component of our marketing efforts into the future.
See all images from the campaign.
I hope you’ll agree with me that the end product is inspiring and sustainable. But the process by which we got here is as important. In a three-day period, we conducted 13 focus groups with more than 100 participants in all. I was deeply gratified by the response we received from faculty, staff, students, prospective students, alumni, community members and the ABOR staff. Everyone was constructive in their comments about our creative approaches and also very much appreciated being included.
The focus groups were presented three different concepts summarized by the themes “Boundless,” “Together” and “Discover.” Each drew upon the environment around us, the passion of our students and faculty, and our social impact.
There was a good deal of diversity in perspectives about each concept, and the participants found a lot to like in each one. At the end of our discussions, it was clear to us that the concept “Boundless” stood out as inspiring, distinctive and a theme that we could build on. At the same time, there was considerable sentiment for the idea behind “Together”—that students, staff, faculty and our alumni feel a sense of belonging and community as Lumberjacks that is hard to find elsewhere.
So, we were faced with a challenge—how to build a “Boundless” campaign infused with the sense of togetherness that our stakeholders clearly felt was important. We believe the final product meets this challenge.
We hope you appreciate this preview of our new and exciting brand creative. I’m always interested in feedback about what we’re doing at the university, and this is no exception. Please send along your comments to me at president@nau.edu. I’ll be happy to know what you think.