Carolina Excellence
ROLE: Lead art director. Produced marketing materials, installations, and digital assets.
About the Campaign
Our friends at UNC Student Affairs came to us with the intention of promoting an app they were developing called Carolina Excellence. The app offers UNC students a hub of activities and opportunities categorized across different competencies and varying depths. The app maps out students’ involvement during their time at UNC and tracks their growth, creating a transcript that they can reference as they transition out of college.
As a team, we developed a strategy to organically create buzz around the app. We recognized that direct marketing had a role, but we needed to be more clever than plastering “download our app!” on promotional items. As a result, we generated a range of promotional touch points, some straightforward and others more offbeat.
Arts Everywhere Initiative
Arts Everywhere is an initiative whose goal is to provide more and a variety of art opportunities for UNC. Their efforts culminate in a day in April for a campus wide celebration of art. A part of that celebration includes placing a number of pianos at key locations, inviting passersby to play a tune.
Our team leveraged this free opportunity to paint a one-of-a-kind piano to promote Carolina Excellence. I designed an eye-catching and vibrant composition which my team and I painted over the course of the week. Our piano was appeared across different channels: it was featured on the cover of The Daily Tar Heel, the Arts Everywhere social media, student accounts, and the official UNC social media. The piano was located right by the UNC seal, a high traffic area for both students, families, prospective students, community members, and the chancellor herself.
Professional Headshots Initiative
The next portion of our campaign was to offer free professional level headshots for UNC students in exchange for having them answer the question “What does Carolina Excellence mean to you?” We then shared their headshots and answers on the Carolina Union instagram page.
To advertise for this event, I produced animated gifs that were displayed throughout the Union as well as posted on our social media pages. Photography by Elise Holsonback.
Animation
Headshots
Recipe For Excellence
The final step of our campaign was hosting an event called “Recipe for Excellence” where we offered a DIY ice cream bar. This event allowed students to learn more about the app by getting a chance to chat with the leaders of the Carolina Excellence initiative. Over 400 students attended the event.