A trusted and award-winning Johns Hopkins resource has
a new name and Web presence to
better reflect its expanded mission and services.
The Office of Design and Publications, which debuted
in the 1950s, has recently merged with
the university's new central marketing office to become a
single entity called
Marketing and Creative Services.
The new group launched its revamped Web site earlier
this month. The sleek but subdued home
page first displays the old name, which then quickly fades
away to reveal "Marketing & Creative
Services" and its motto, "Full-service solutions for the
Johns Hopkins community."
Under its new name, Marketing and Creative Services
will provide a suite of marketing services,
such as advertising, communications planning, and branding
and identity guidelines, and it will continue
to create content for print, Web, video and exhibits
— everything from a regulation business card to a
high-definition national television spot.
Chris Cullen, director of Marketing, said that Design
and Publications had provided many of
these services for years but that the time was right for a
new identity.
"Design and Publications as a moniker reflects less
than what this group has been doing the past
several years, and certainly less than what this group will
be doing," said Cullen, who in his role
oversees Marketing and Creative Services. "One of the
significant aspects of changing the name is to
encourage people to reconsider or imagine what they can
expect to get from us. This venture is taking
this core group of tenured, talented designers and making
the service package more elastic to the
people it serves."
Cullen joined the university in September 2007 and has
been facilitating an inclusive
universitywide branding initiative intended to connect in
appearance, content and voice all Johns
Hopkins schools, centers and institutes. Marketing and
Creative Services, he said, was formed in part
to serve that need.
The new group will, like its predecessor, design
brochures, catalogs, newsletters, invitations,
posters and all manner of print material. It now also
provides videography services, video editing,
animation, original music and script writing. In line with
its comprehensive Internet strategy, the staff
designs Web architecture and pages with interactive
multimedia modules and Web-based forms, such
as databases and online questionnaires. In addition, the
staff intends to provide comprehensive
communications strategies that might incorporate everything
from a VIP e-mail blast to a multiday
event.
The resource has regularly won accolades for its
visually appealing and effective work. The
Office of Undergraduate Admissions' viewbook, which it has
designed for many years in partnership
with the Office of
Admissions, recently received the gold award in Higher
Education Marketing Report's 24th Annual Admissions
Advertising Awards.
Marketing and Creative Services also designed and
produced the very well-received first-floor
exhibit in the Whiting School's Computational Science and
Engineering Building at Homewood. The 60-foot exhibit,
divided into four themes, illustrates what engineers do and
shows off the school's cutting-edge research and
accomplishments. It features images, showcased artifacts,
milestone facts
etched on aluminum discs and four plasma screens, each of
which tells a story related to a theme.
Glenn Simmons, director of Creative Services, says
that he views Marketing and Creative
Services as a full-service communications resource that
will work one-on-one with its clients to help
them efficiently meet their goals.
"They might call and say, 'I need a brochure.' And we
can do that, but before we do, we'll ask
them to describe what they want to accomplish, or what
their ultimate measurement of success is,"
Simmons said.
Instead of a brochure, he said, a targeted Web site or
an event might better suit the client's
needs. "The idea is to build a relationship based on
listening and, in turn, help our clients connect with
the people they are trying to reach," he said.
In the past year, Marketing and Creative Services has
added to its team Tim Windsor as
director of Web strategy and Jay Corey as director of video
strategy.
Windsor said that his primary role is to establish a
"compelling and performance-driven Web
center" to accommodate a growing audience for digital
assets, including Web sites, mobile applications
and online video and photography. Windsor, who previously
was vice president for interactive at The
Baltimore Sun, is working closely with information
architects and marketing communications experts
around the university to develop a cohesive and productive
Web presence for the institution as a
whole.
"Our plan is to first unify the core Johns Hopkins Web
site with better search [capability],
clearer navigation and consistent look and feel," Windsor
said. "We will also be working with other
Hopkins Web sites — including schools, eventually
— to identify ways in which this unified core site
can
inform a design strategy that would help all JHU Web sites
feel more of a family."
Corey oversees all components of video design,
production and implementation. He brings to this
position more than 20 years of experience as an
award-winning producer, writer, videographer, editor,
media manager and advertising agency creative director.
Before joining Marketing and Creative
Services — part of the university's Office of
Government, Community and Public Affairs — Corey
worked
in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Marketing and
Communications, where he spearheaded
the creation of internal video services.
Joining him is senior producer Deirdre Hammer, whose
more than 20 years of producing and
editing award-winning and high-profile video projects for
the university brings the team a "vast
institutional knowledge," Corey said.
Simmons said that, in all its aspects, Marketing and
Creative Services prides itself on offering a
professional product at a significant cost savings compared
to external vendors.
"Particularly in this time of budget cuts, we are very
cost-effective," Simmons said. "As we say,
'We speak fluent Johns Hopkins here.' We know the
university. We have a lot of resources, local
vendors, and provide good, quality work. Just because our
goal is to be less expensive than an outside
resource, it doesn't mean there is any sacrifice in
quality."
As a centrally funded service, Marketing and Creative
Services functions as the university's
"brand steward" and can consult with internal clients on
marketing and Web strategy.
Cullen said that he views branding as connectivity,
not uniformity.
"There should be a cohesiveness," said Cullen, a
marketing communications veteran with more
than 25 years of experience in the field. "For a Web site,
for example, you should not be confused as
to what enterprise you are searching through. You should
know that you are still within Johns Hopkins
University, and there should be an intuitive and consistent
navigational process that will not only save
the user time and aggravation but also offer some
consistent context."
Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Cullen managed
strategic marketing for a wide range of
commercial companies, from multibrand hospitality
portfolios to hospital systems and technology
systems integrators. In his role as the chief marketing
officer of the American Legacy Foundation, he
produced life-saving social marketing campaigns, including
the Emmy Award-winning national "truth"
anti-smoking campaign.
"A strong brand promise is a unifying and practical
tool for all marketing communications,"
Cullen said. "[University] President Daniels has directed
our team and the outside experts who work
for us to be diligent and methodical in ensuring that what
we do is completely inclusive and organic.
Each member of our community has to see themselves in the
university's identity and in everything we
do."
To contact Marketing and Creative Services, and for
more information about its work, go to
mcs.jhu.edu.
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