Marian University: Music and Art Programs

Situation

Marian University had a small music program. Consistent efforts to grow the program had not proved fruitful.

Solution

We helped Marian Music identify several opportunities to put their name brand in front of various communities throughout the city and state in ways that would keep it there long-term rather than fleetingly like most marketing. We started with the marching band because it was an area of priority for the university. In consultation with the faculty, we decided to emphasize a knowledge gap for many marching band musicians: how to dress appropriately and safely throughout the marching band season. Marching band season starts at the height of summer when temperatures are extraordinarily high and players must take precautions not to overheat, and it extends well into the winter when players must dress in layers in order to stay warm. We captured this information on a rectangular sticker that we distributed to marching band players and conductors throughout the region. As stickers, the information and its Marian University branding had a home intuitively on music folders, stands, or cases.

We also identified a prime opportunity to gamify music education with the circle of fifths, the musician’s tool that indicates the number of sharps or flats in each of the 12 key signatures. We placed these on a spinning wheel, and on the back of the piece we printed warmup exercises for bands and ensembles. This beautiful, branded piece served as a conductor’s tool. The conductor could spin the wheel to determine the key of the day (“Please don’t let it land on something with a lot of flats or sharps...!”) and then lead the group in warmup exercises in that key.

Because we had so effectively captured and branded the circle of fifths, we published that as a sticker as well and distributed it widely.

The art faculty appreciated the effectiveness of these efforts and wanted to emulate them. We put together an eight-panel folded publication guiding students through how to prepare an art portfolio, whether for college or job applications or any other presentation.

Success

The marching band stickers proved extremely popular and began popping up at competitions for years. The spinners enjoyed even wider success because of the interactive nature of the tool. Musicians of all abilities enjoyed immensely just spinning the wheel to pick a key signature. Musicians enjoyed putting stickers on their music cases and folders well before it became the trend it is today. The visual arts faculty were wise to capitalize on the success of the music piece, because their publication was extremely popular with high school students preparing college application art portfolios, thereby putting the Marian logo and website in front of the primary target audience of the university.