COM Digital Communications Plan and Style Guide

Boston University College of Communication

Digital Communications Plan and Brand Guidelines January 2017

Digital Communications Plan: Tatiana M.R. Johnson Brand Guidelines: Lydia Morales The following documents contain the digital communications plan for the College of Communication along with brand guidelines for the College of Communication. Please contact the following with any questions: Tatiana M.R. Johnson Digital Communications Manager [email protected] 617-358-1114 Lydia Morales Senior Graphic Designer [email protected] 617-353-4514 The following documents are the property of Boston University’s College of Communication.

Created by: Tatiana M.R. Johnson January 2017

2017-‐2018 Digital Communications Plan for the College of Communication at Boston University

OPPORTUNITY

The Boston University College of Communication is one of the few schools in the United States dedicated to the field of communications. It is also the first school in the country to teach public relations. The College has been teaching the next-‐generation of leaders in communications for longer than almost any other institution. Our communications strategy can optimize its opportunity to leverage COM as one of the strongest stakeholders in the education of communicators. By positioning COM as an authority in media fields, we hope to attract prospective students who not only want to work in the communications industries, but who want to make an invaluable impact in these fields. This strategy also aims to promote COM’s mission of being a community that fosters diversity, inclusion and pride of our current students, faculty and alumni. In addition to putting forth this image, we hope to promote the way COM has been influential in establishing new ideas, research in the media landscape and cultivating diverse and innovative leaders.

BU COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION MISSION AND GOALS

Mission: The Boston University College of Communication (COM) is dedicated to the proposition that the free flow of ideas and accurate information is vital to the development and improvement of democratic societies. The College’s mission is to provide an education center of excellence focused on teaching, research, and service in the study and professional practice of communication. The College is dedicated to creating a diverse environment, to allow its students to be exposed to, and learn from, varied points of view and backgrounds. This serves to provide all of our students the benefit of a


wide-‐range of experiences, which they can then use to inform others and elevate dialogue through their professional careers. To accomplish its mission, faculty and students maintain high standards of scholastic achievement, establish rigorous professional communication skill training to prepare students for successful careers and put forth a broad-‐minded attitude towards cultivating an inclusive community of perceptive and socially conscious leaders. The College stresses:

-‐ A core liberal arts education that enables students to understand societies’ diverse cultural foundations and stimulates a strong sense of social responsibility

-‐ Critical thinking, creativity, and personal integrity -‐ Detailed research, lucid writing, oral presentation skills and mastery

of various mass communication media -‐ An understanding that learning is a lifelong pursuit Goals: -‐ Raise brand awareness of the College of Communication’s mission to

be a leader in news industries, media, entertainment, strategic communications and research

-‐ Promote COM as a leader in practice and innovation in the entertainment, communications and media industries

-‐ Showcase COM’s community of students, faculty and alumni that are socially conscious and active in leadership that promotes inclusion and diversity of all sorts.

Messaging: These four key messages will be used to successfully convey COM’s mission and goals to the greater public. Key Message 1: Social responsibility COM is building the next generation of socially conscious leaders in the media, communications and entertainment fields.


This message connects to the part of the COM mission that talks about students understanding “societies’ diverse cultural foundations.” It also represents COM’s mission to cultivate a diverse and inclusive community. This message conveys that COM is teaching students who take the initiative to establish new trends, ideas and processes while being cognizant of their responsibility to the world and those around them. Key Message 2: Critical thinking, creativity and personal integrity The next generation of impactful creative communication starts with you. What will you create? This message acknowledges that our prospective students, current students, faculty and alumni are creative, but also take action based on critical thinking and personal integrity. This message enforces the part of the COM mission that encourages creativity along with acknowledging that students bring their own ideas and values to this creativity. Key Message 3: Detailed Research and Mastery of Mass Communication Media Discovery. Truth. Insight. Bring your voice to COM and learn how to make it heard. COM alumni have cited that COM has taught them how to be the best in their field. This message illustrates COM’s value on a practical and professional level. This message highlights the community of accomplished and up-‐and-‐coming practitioners at COM. This encourages the academic expectation that students are mastering and discovering how to be the best practioners in their field while studying at COM. Key Message 4: Lifelong pursuit of learning Learn from the ones who taught the greats. Let the best in COM guide you successfully through your career. This message establishes COM as an institution that teaches COM the next generation of leaders along with highlighting the long standing community of alumni and faculty who continually contribute their innovative ideas to the world of communication. This message conveys that COM is teaching


students to be life-‐long learners that are continually bettering their communication skills. This messaging also conveys that COM students are a part of a legacy that continues to establish new trends and ideas while building up a new generation of leaders.

COM’S CURRENT DIGITAL LANDSCAPE We currently have active social accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We post on Facebook at least once a day, on Twitter 3-‐5 times a day and Instagram at least twice a week. We currently use Google AdWords with a company called Converge Consulting. We use paid advertising on all our social channels primarily with the goal to increase followers.

STRATEGY

The following strategy will be instated in an effort to help COM achieve its goals and highlight the COM mission. BUILD COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS/CONTENT CREATION COM already has a solid presence on social media. We provide consistent interaction on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels. To optimize our current communications channels we can do the following:

-‐ Increasing social following by 10%+ o Institute paid ads

! Boosting popular posts on Facebook ! Running ads to increase brand recognition

-‐ Video o Using short videos to engage with our digital audiences o Integrating COM BUniverse and YouTube channel to reflect

one voice o Establishing video placement strategy

-‐ Linkedin o Create a digital community of COM professionals o Keep track of alumni and current students and their current

careers o Use professional organizations to track influencers and build

community


-‐ Social media organizing o Maintain a list of COM related social accounts on the COM

website

RAISE AWARENESS OF RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND COM MISSION Our communication channels do not heavily focus on the research and innovation done by professors and students at COM. The COM mission is also not stated clearly on our website. We hope to promote these things in the following ways:

-‐ Make COM’s mission visible on the COM website -‐ Promote COM research on website and communication channels

o Post COM research on Medium (an online publishing site) and use tagging to make COM research accessible to the greater public.

o Promote COM research in web articles o Use visual tools such as info graphics and animated videos to

illustrate COM research o Promote these videos on social and the COM website

-‐ Promote and consistently maintain department specific communication channels

o Highlight these channels in our communications (i.e. retweeting, reposting content, etc.)

o Making sure these channels are always up-‐to-‐date and producing steady content

HIGHLIGHT LEADERSHIP AND PRACTITIONERS Viewing how successful COM faculty, students and alumni are truly leveraging COM as an institute that creates some of the best leaders. To further take advantage of our successful community I suggest we further spotlight members of the COM community. We can do this in the following ways:

-‐ Showcase COM students groups on the website with a static webpage

-‐ Highlighting any successful COM alumni who are making notable strides in their career


o Spotlighting COM alumni who may not be in traditional communications fields, but have found a degree from COM invaluable in their careers

-‐ Making the value of attending COM tangible by showing success o Let the stories of those who got invaluable skills at COM speak

for themselves. Using video, written interviews, graphics and other media to spotlight these stories.

! i.e. We currently do a weekly #WednesdayWisdom campaign on our social media channels using the career path images from the COM lobby. These images consist of an alumni quote and a map of how they go to their current career.

FOCUS GROUPS The most useful way to gain further insight on areas of growth in communicating with our audiences is to gather more data. Depending on what audiences we’d like to amplify we can gather information from that particular audience. I suggest the following:

-‐ Initiating student based focus groups o Meet with students, faculty and alumni to gather information

about what they perceive about our current communications -‐ Attach surveys to applications to gather information from

prospective students, current students and alumni. o Using the application process to gather more information

about the experience of prospective students communicating and receiving communication from COM

NOTE This strategy does not include methods of communication that include traditional public relations and non-‐digital communications.

CONCLUSION

Dividing COM’s messaging into four key parts will streamline the narrative about COM to its mission statement. This messaging will be conveyed by the strategy above as a way to unify all constituents across the college to the type of communications COM would like to have with the greater public.


This communications plan leverages our current social presence and gives it some direction to communicate with our target audiences (prospective students, current students, academic/research community and alumni). If successful, this plan will drive more applications from prospective students, retention and greater alumni engagement. This success can be quantified in alumni donations, data on student retention and with data on the amount of students applying to COM.

COMquick glance style guide

2

COM logoLogo guidelines established by Boston University’s Marketing & Communications team should always be adhered to when using and sharing logos. Whenever you place a logo in communication materials, please consult the BU Brand Identity Standards (www.bu.edu/brand) or COM’s Lead Designer.

COM will follow the guidelines below for selecting between the various sub-brand logo formats available.

FOR INTERNAL BU AUDIENCES The “standard” logo format should be the primary format used unless the logo will be placed in the bottom left of a page or in another visual context where the stacked logo is the more logical aesthetic choice.

Note: On single-page communications/web pages for internal audiences, the BU master logo will rarely need to be used.

FOR EXTERNAL AUDIENCESFor external pieces, make sure the words “Boston University” are present in the logo(s) used. Therefore, the “stacked” logo or a combination of the BU “master” logo and the sub-brand “text only” logos should be used on external communications.

Note: The selection between these two options can be based on aesthetics, formality of communication piece, intended relationship with BU vs. COM, etc. When in doubt, please consult the Design Center!

SUB-BRAND “STANDARD” LOGO

BU “MASTER” LOGO

SUB-BRAND “STACKED” LOGO SUB-BRAND “TEXT ONLY” LOGO

For internal or external audiences, if multiple sub-brand logos need to be used on one communication, the “text only” formats should be used in combination with a “master” logo. Always avoid placing multiple “stacked” sub-brand logos on one communication.

One more thing...

3

COM redPMS 186 CCMYK 0-100-75-4RGB 204-0-0HEX CC0000

COM purplePMS 259 CCMYK 60-100-10-0RGB 109-32-119HEX 6D2077

COM turquoisePMS 306 CCMYK 65-4-11-0RGB 0-181-226HEX 00B5E2

COM light greenPMS 366 CCMYK 35-5-75-0RGB 164-214-94HEX A4D65E

COM yellowPMS 123 CCMYK 0-25-95-0RGB 255-199-44HEX FFC72C

COM greenPMS 360 CCMYK 65-3-100-0RGB 108-194-74HEX 6CC24A

COM charcoalPMS Cool Gray 9 CCMYK 45-35-35-18RGB 117-120-123HEX 75787B

COM dark redPMS 7622 CCMYK 0-100-96-30RGB 147-39-44HEX 93272C

COM light greyPMS 428 CCMYK 10-4-4-14RGB 193-198-200HEX C1C6C8

COM lavenderPMS 2573 CCMYK 36-60-0-0RGB 184-132-203HEX B884CB

COM emerald PMS 3278 CCMYK 98-0-59-0RGB 0-155-119HEX 009B77

COM orangePMS 166CCMYK 0-79-100-0RGB 241-93-34HEX F15D22

COM bluePMS Process Blue CCMYK 100-20-1-2RGB 0-133-202HEX 0085CA

PRIMARY COLOR PALETTE

SECONDARY COLOR PALETTE

TERTIARY COLOR PALETTE

COM colorsOur primary and secondary colors should dominate the overall body of communication materials that COM produces. Tertiary colors can be used as accents to add energy, enhance a message, or differentiate materials.

Never approximate our colors – use the numerical codes to the right. If you need additional help, check in with COM’s Design Center.

Interesting color combinations can be created from as few as two or three of our foundation colors. Choose your colors with discretion and an eye toward balance, harmony, and creating an intentional focal point and visual hierarchy.

FOU

ND

ATI

ON

CO

LORS

Don’t be scared of white space, and don’t scramble to fill it! White space acts as a way for eyes and minds to rest, and intentional white space can help draw attention to the color, typography, or graphics you’ve chosen to convey your message.

One more thing...

4

COM typefaces

Avenir

Klinic Slab

Typeface choices can have a strong influence on the effect of our communication materials. When used consistently, typefaces can quickly help develop a visual identity into brand recognition – our typefaces will begin to be associated with COM in our stakeholders’ minds.

We have a primary and secondary typeface that should be used, nearly exclusively, in most COM communications. The primary typeface may appear without the secondary, but the secondary should not appear without the primary. PRIMARY TYPEFACE

SECONDARY TYPEFACE

FOU

ND

ATI

ON

TYP

EFA

CES

BrandonPRIMARY TYPEFACE

WEB

TYP

EFA

CE

5

Primary typeface

Avenir LightLIGHTLight ObliqueBookBook ObliqueRoman

ObliqueHeavyHeavy ObliqueBlackBLACKBlack Oblique

In COM materials, Avenir should always be the primary typeface. Avenir may appear without Ainslie/supplemental typefaces, but Ainslie/supplemental typefaces should not appear without Avenir.

Avenir may be used for body copy with Ainslie or a supplemental typeface for display copy (titles and headers); however, Avenir is versatile and may also be used as display text.

Pairing sentence-case Avenir body copy with all-caps or black-weight Avenir headers can create the contrast and visual hierarchy you need without searching beyond this font family.

If you are creating a piece of collateral for an internal audience and do not have Avenir, please substitute Arial or Helvetica. If you are creating something for an external audience, please check-in with the Design Center and we can either get Avenir installed on your computer or work with you to design the piece.

One more thing...

6

Secondary typeface

Klinic SlabLight Light italicBookBook italicMediumMedium italicBold Bold italic

Klinic Slab is a differentiator — it offers something unexpected and distinct, while remaining highly legible and conveying a sense of breath and elegance.

Klinic Slab offers a great typeface choice for headlines and callouts that will help us stand out from the crowd. Ainslie should not be used as body copy.

Klinic Slab is available in different weights, however we will primarily use the fonts in light & medium.

7

Imagery: PhotosWe want our photos to show that we are a dynamic, collaborative, hands-on college. People should look at the photos in our materials and be able to say, “that could be me” or “I want to do that!”

Plan to invest time to find the right photo(s) to help your materials attract the attention of your audience and powerfully deliver your message.

Our COM Marketing Team is working to develop a searchable database of photos and to hire photographers to help build a more robust library of shots that capture the type of energy and interaction we are looking for. Please work directly with the Design Center to access this database and/or select images.

Ideally, each page/main component of a COM-produced piece of collateral would feature one great photo - a real show-stopper that takes center stage. When that’s just not possible due to size/resolution/photo availability, the next best thing is to create a clean “collage” of smaller photos. In a collage, each photo should have 1/8” white border around it (photos should not run directly into each other OR have color/black borders), and some photos should overlap to add energy to the collage.

PHOTO SELECTIONWhen you’re searching for that perfect photo or collection of photos, look for:

Human interaction - Look for photos that feature more than one person and show people engaged in an activity together. Remember: Hands-on and collaborative!

Relevance - The photo should connect to and support the content/message of the communication piece.

Energy - Do the people look happy, alert, and engaged?

Focal point - Is there a clear focal point in the photo? Bonus points if people’s body positions and/or the direction of their faces or eyes helps guide you toward that focal point.

Immediacy - Look for photos that are framed or cropped in such a way that you are close to the action rather than feeling “zoomed out.”

PHOTO PLACEMENT

8

Imagery: PhotosThese photos meet our goals for human interaction, relevance, energy, focal point, and immediacy. The collage on this page illustrates best practices for building a collage with 1/8” borders between photos and occasional overlap among photos.

The treatment of photos can be changed as well. Using a monotone overlay, the use of single color images is becoming a norm in COM web design. Any of the colors from the color pallet may be used as an overlay

A slight black opacity is an effect that can also be applied to images. This enables text to be layered overtop the image with increased visibility.

9

Imagery: Graphics/IllustrationFlat design adds a clean and fresh touch to our communication materials. This style can be used to allude to the creative process in each of COM’s Fields through the use of icons.

Consider incorporating graphics when the subject matter would be enhanced by this professional and crisp, or when you simply don’t have access to photos that are relevant to your subject matter.

Make sure your choices about imagery - whether graphics or photography - are always driven by the question, “will this help me better deliver my message?”

10

ResourcesBOSTON UNIVERSITY BRAND GUIDELINES(for full guidelines on use of the BU master logo and sub-brand logos - e.g. COM, COM department & program logos)

COM DESIGN CENTER9 a.m-5 p.m. Monday-FridayLydia Morales, Lead Designer

www.bu.edu/brand(sections 1-4)

[email protected]

If you are ready to submit a design request to the Design Center, please submit a request online at www.bu.edu/com/design-request so that we can start work on your project.

To submit a request, please have your written content ready to go (edited); know the messaging goal(s), tone, and audience for your project, and know what final format you’d like your project to take (i.e. is it an 11x17 poster, an image you need to email, an image you need to post on Facebook, etc.) and how/in what quantities it will be distributed.

If you need help thinking through any of the above elements, please contact Kim Relick, Marketing Manager, or Laurie Herschman for consultation prior to submitting your design request.

Documents

COM Digital Communications Plan and Style Guide