'Be Successful' Video Series (Saint Louis University)
With Saint Louis University's new storytelling campaign and digital taking off in the late 2000s, I was tasked with producing a new series of videos to support the "Be a Billiken" student recruitment brand. But instead of casting current students as I had in other videos, I wanted to talk to recent alumni and show how a SLU education benefitted their careers. As a marketing department, we increasingly were working with the university's undergraduate admissions and alumni relations divisions to connect the dots between majors and outcomes so that prospective students could see the true value of a SLU education.
I asked a variety of trusted university sources for recommendations on great recent alums, and after sifting through dozens of possibilities, I chose Mukwati and Seth for the first two videos in this series. Mukwati had been a nursing student from Zambia and continued to work in the area after graduation. Seth was a St. Louis native who had two SLU degrees, had been on the public safety force and was a cheerleader for the city's transit systems.
With a local videography studio, I scouted filming locations, secured various permits and photo releases, researched Mukwati's and Seth's backgrounds for questioning, interviewed the alums, made B-roll shot lists, chose footage and music, added "Be a Billiken" language and elements and reviewed the packages for consistency.
The videos were instant successes on the "Be a Billiken" digital portal and beyond. Both undergraduate admissions and alumni relations eagerly began using the videos in presentations and other materials, and Mukwati and Seth (and their employers!) regularly promoted the videos to their own audiences. After this successful release, I produced four more alumni videos for the series, bringing in a range of degrees and hometowns to show how far a SLU education could take someone.
Play the videos below or watch them on YouTube: