MBSAA Rebrand

 

After record low attendance and giving, our creative team was tasked with a brand refresh for the UChicago Alumni Association for the Medical and Biological Sciences.

Roles and responsibilities:

Creative direction. Oversee budget and quality.
Pitch and collaborate with University leadership.

Art direction and website design: Carla Bellido,
Website development: Bethany Hubbard,

 
 

  • Understand alumni needs and preferences in order to communicate with them effectively and provide a website that better serves them. Create engaging communications that increase attendance and giving, drive more traffic to the website.

  • Being in-house, this was an additional project with no budget. Our team had to make extra time and creativity to the project.

  • Alumni had a great affinity for the University. Tapping into that was essential for success.

  • Alumni communications before the refresh were fragmented and confusing for alumni. Once branding was consistent and alumni had website and communications that added value to their lives, alumni began to attend and give like never before. We saw our highest attendance rates, open- and click-rates in email communications, website traffic, and giving.

 

Our Process

  • Brand Audit

    Our first task was compiling all material that goes out to alumni, noting response rates, inconsistencies in branding and messaging.

  • Survey Alumni: Define Challenges + Key Opportunities

    We flagged that the current logo was not University complaint, the website was not mobile friendly or responsive, and overuse of design templates were not engaging alumni.

  • Align logo and branding with University

    After surveying alumni, UChicago’s brand equity was incredibly strong with alumni. It was important to build off their branding but stand out in some way, since alumni receive communications from other areas of the University in addition to their undergraduate program and additional schooling.

  • Build new website

    Building a website that was mobile-friendly and responsive was essential…but alumni had other needs. Alumni wanted to be notified of University and MBSAA events and filter by relevance and preference, receive news related to fellow alumni and volunteer opportunities. Site architecture was essential and site traffic increased dramatically while bounce rates decreased.

  • Develop consistent branding

    Certain brand elements were to be used throughout materials for consistency ( e.g., headers in emails), but allowing enough space for creativity and evolution.

Align and leverage UChicago brand.

UChicago’s brand was meaningful to alumni and the current logo went against University branding, The previous logo was difficult to print and illegible in small formats or on web.

An abbreviated logo for small spaces.

Since the full MBSAA name is so long, it was important to have an abbreviated logo for small spaces and web. The crest is a nice minimal touch that leverages University branding and defines which entity from the University

Bringing uniformity with flexibility.

It was important to bring some element of branding consistency, so all envelopes warmly invited regional alumni to the event. All invitation covers used the abbreviated logo or crest to serve as a nice intro without coming across as too “corporate” with a full logo. These small touches brought brand consistencies while also allowing each event to be unique. While budgets remained small, we leaned on creativity and color to encourage alumni to attend events.

Redesigning a website that adds value

Defining who the MBSAA is within UChicago and the value it has for alumni was essential, along with strong site architecture and seamless user flow.

GIF is courtesy of Carla Bellido