SLU: "Be a Billiken" Branding Overview

Saint Louis University: Be a Billiken

Be inspired.

Be unique.

Be outstanding.

Be a Billiken.

I completely lived Saint Louis University's "Be a Billiken" undergraduate recruitment brand for five of my ten years in the university's marketing department. "Be a Billiken" was different from any recruitment campaigns that had come before it because for the first time ever, all stakeholders -- undergraduate admission, financial aid, academic leaders, alumni relations, student development and, of course, marketing -- united for one message, one look, one goal.

As the creator and guardian of the brand voice, I was in charge of developing all messaging for different points of the marketing/yield funnel and project-managing the web portal, commercials, videos, radio spots, social media marketing, informative collateral and campus experiences. I worked with our amazing in-house team of art directors and web developers as well as external videographers and photographers to bring it all to life. After a year of discussion and prep, we finally started pushing "Be a Billiken" in 2008, and it quickly became part of the university culture -- so much so that we had to create internal guides and restrict what campus groups were trying to do with the words and marks, just as we did with the main university identifiers. Our target audiences, prospective undergraduate students aged 14-18 as well as their parents and guidance counselors, also responded enthusiastically to the branding and language. Over the years, we continued to hone and evolve the messaging and presentation thanks to insights gained through focus groups both locally and in regions where we wanted to expand the university's brand nationally. Since 2008, we increased freshman enrollment yearly and in 2011 hit the university's record high.

I've included a few of the "Be a Billiken" efforts below (links provided when possible), but you can learn a lot more about individual projects by clicking on the folders elsewhere throughout my Behance portfolio.