New Campaign Shows Fisher Impact

This month, St. John Fisher University launched its new advertising campaign, “Impactful You,” designed to highlight the many ways a Fisher education positively impacts students, in turn allowing them to impact their communities in their professional and personal lives.

Led by the Office of Marketing and Communications in collaboration with Dixon Schwabl + Company (DS + Co), the University’s new agency-of-record, the new partnership officially kicked off in August 2022, beginning with brand strategy work to lay the foundation for branding support and message development. As Fisher’s agency-of-record, DS + Co will provide services including media planning and buying; creative concepting and execution; competitor analysis; analytics and reporting; campaign maintenance and optimization; and public relations support.

Part of DS + Co’s process is sharing concepts with an IDEA Panel, a group of professionals with an expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion who evaluate and critique campaigns using a co-created rubric. The panel helps recognize and eliminate unconscious bias in the work and helps ensure inclusive marketing strategies.

After several months of strategy sessions and discussions as well as market research, the DS + Co team distilled their findings down to a simple, yet powerful brand promise: “Transforming great potential into true purpose.” To bring that promise alive, “Impactful You” was developed. To tell the story, a three-day video and photo shoot captured all aspects of Fisher. With the help of the entire campus, the campaign highlights everything from students and professors in the classroom and daily activities on campus to campus scenery and student life. More than 70 students, faculty, and staff served as cast members for more than 50 scenes as the 15-member crew captured 30 hours of footage and hundreds of photos.

The campaign features four theme spots  that will be shown on streaming platforms including Hulu, Peacock, and more as well as social media.  It also includes additional print and digital assets for a variety of tactics including billboards, consumer email, streaming audio including Pandora and Spotify, banner display ads, and more.

“In all of our campaigns, our goal is to showcase our students—to highlight their unique stories and share their successes—all of which strengthen the University’s brand,” said Kate Torok, director of marketing and communications. “We always say that we can’t script our students any better and this campaign shares true and real experiences from students at Fisher, all of which so nicely align with the brand promise. Thanks to the many students and faculty who helped us tell the Fisher story in an impactful and new way.”