mStoner, Inc. Wins UCDA Award of Excellence for Hope College — Integrated Campaign

The 47th Annual University & College Designers Association (UCDA) Design Competition honors mStoner, Inc. with an Award of Excellence for work on Hope College’s Integrated Enrollment Marketing Campaign.

The judges of the annual UCDA Design Competition evaluated 1,269 print and digital entries, awarding only 204 awards: 6 Gold Awards, 11 Silver Awards and 187 Awards of Excellence.

Hope College Gets Authentic With Admissions Collateral

When Hope College reached out to mStoner, it was ready to overhaul its print and digital marketing collateral and achieve better collaboration between the marketing and admissions departments. When it comes to recruitment, Hope College knows just the type of student it wants to attract. Its right-fit prospects are sharp, artistic, religiously diverse, and proudly unconventional. Hope’s challenge was mirroring that authenticity in its print and digital collateral.

mStoner delivered a complete system of strategies, visual designs, and well-produced pieces that Hope can replicate and build on year after year. The final products included a new viewbook, a social media strategy, email and PowerPoint design templates, an editorial calendar, a number of videos, an acceptance gift box, and a whole slate of print pieces.

“The viewbook needed a personality and a point of view. It may not resonate with everyone, but certainly the new collateral better matches the Hope experience: intense, yet fun and welcoming,” said Ben Bilow, mStoner’s creative director.

Hand-drawn typography and sketches of Hope’s campus achieve a texturized, imperfect, human aesthetic that conveys personality and a sense of place. The high-impact, personalized acceptance gift box reinvents the financial-aid award letter as a marketing piece. It reminds recipients of the great value a Hope education offers while simultaneously making them excited to enroll. Admitted students posted videos and images of themselves unboxing the acceptance gift and celebrating their offer from Hope.

A full admissions cycle with the new materials has yet to take place, but there is early evidence of success. Admitted students posted unboxing videos and images on social media when they received the acceptance gift. And the Hope team reports that fellow staff members are “swooning” over the viewbook, even stopping each other in the grocery store to share how much they love the piece.