Céad míle fáilte: While the Irish greeting for “100,000 Welcomes” hasn’t translated exactly to  that number of new client relationships in 2010, we have had quite the busy first two quarters at Lipman Hearne establishing new partnerships. We are proud of, and excited by, the collaborations that are underway and would like to take a moment to properly welcome the following nonprofit organizations:

Advocate Health Care
Alverno College
American Medical Association
California State University, Northridge
Channel One
Council for a Strong America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
George Washington University
National Defense University
Northwest Area Foundation
Pew Center for Statistics
Rhodes College
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Schoolnet
Seton Hall University
Society of Actuaries
University at Buffalo
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business
University of Virginia Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy

The number of Tufts applicants choosing the video option has been significant, but not overwhelming – about 1,000 of the 15,000 applicants this year submitted videos. The responses range from students showing off card tricks to day-in-the-life montages to flying a remote-controlled blue-elephant helicopter (representing Tufts’ mascot, Jumbo the Elephant). Some of the videos have even gathered a YouTube following – the most popular one features Amelia Downs; her video has gotten more than 6,000 views.

So what does this all mean? Will videos ultimately replace the written essay? Tufts admissions staff insists that they remain “committed to the traditional essay-writing requirement” and that videos are genuinely optional. But this is clearly the year of the video for colleges and universities – between the “Lipdub” phenomenon and Yale’s YouTube musical “That’s Why I Chose Yale,” universities’ staff and students are increasingly turning towards video as an effective means of marketing their institution. So it seems natural that prospective students are likewise using this medium to market themselves. Only time will reveal to what extent video and other social media vehicles will come to dominate the higher education communications sphere.

What do you think about colleges allowing prospective students to submit application videos? Do you foresee the end of the traditional college essay? Share your thoughts in our comments section.

Another curiosity is the seemingly broad use of the word “brand” being used to compile the list.  In addition to Valentine’s Day (really!?) there is an eclectic mix of people (Alexander McQueen), products (Apple iPad) and annual events (Super Bowl). Should these topics really be compared to each other from a marketing perspective? Will tracking of such mixed topics really help Twitter’s future monetization? And more importantly will those Justin Bieber followers succeed in taking over the Twitterverse?

Share your thoughts on what trends and behaviors should be tracked on Twitter in the comments section.

The technique was created by a group of students at Hochshule Furtwangen University in Germany, who wanted to “show the whole world that studying does not have to be boring.” They shot a video in which students lip sync to a song, while the camera follows them through campus, resulting in a highly-choreographed musical university tour. This spurred the creation of the “University LipDub Project,” which challenges students of other colleges to produce their own videos and show what their campus has to offer (and to see if their creation is worthy of “going viral”).

What started as a European phenomenon gradually moved over to Canada, where the Université du Québec à Montréal’s “LipDub” video made quite an impression – it became so popular that it was featured on CNN and, to date, has received over 4 million hits on YouTube. Now, U.S. universities have begun to catch on, with Texas State University and Suffolk University being some of the first to embrace the trend.

A prime example that this phenomenon has the chance to transition from a grassroots amusement to a legitimate communications department marketing tool is Johns Hopkins University’s end-of-the-year “LipDub” video. Created to thank their donors for their continued support, it shows how the whole university community can collaborate and lend their voice to promote their community and showcase the spirit behind the brand.

The key to not killing this concept before it leaves the ground is to remain inclusive when it comes to who is primarily representing the university. It is ok for the university staff to have a stake in the video, but don’t lose the student-run feel. As with the popular strategy of featuring student blogs on admissions websites, like MIT does, it is the sense that it is providing an unfiltered, first-hand account of campus life that is the spark behind these videos.

Have other examples of social media trends storming your campus? Share them in the comments section.

-Erin Kelly, Marketing Intern

The launch caps a great year for the school. Recent rankings put Miami among the top 10 law schools for Hispanics and among the top 20 law schools in terms of the quality of the lawyers it produces.

Central to the site is Lipman Hearne’s best asset: the staff. Visitors can browse staff stories in the People section, hear staff members’ voices through quotes that float throughout the site, and catch glimpses of them as they travel the globe. (In one such glimpse, a space suit is involved.)

Other media-rich features include portfolios of work, curated along special themes, such as Wasabi for the Brain and The Dean’s List. In addition, the stories of successful collaborations are told through selected case studies, including University of Cincinnati and The Nurse-Family Partnership.

Key Insights reports, presentations, and articles are also available on the site. Information sharing tools make it possible for visitors to share these resources and news articles with colleagues.

Check out Lipman Hearne’s website and leave a comment here – we’d love to hear your feedback.

- Erin Kelly

This :30 spot is being shown in over 300 luxury suites and on 2,800 HD TVs throughout the stadium.  We also drew upon the creative from these spots to develop a 2000 linear foot LED ribbon that circles the stadium interior – on the longest LED board in the world. Initial reports from Texas are that the ads are generating a lot of excitement and that the quality of these spots from a nonprofit entity are causing the Cowboys to run them more frequently than anticipated.

The project is a close collaboration between Muhlenberg’s internal web team and Lipman Hearne.

Over the next five years, Viacom, Gates, and their other partners will devote many more resources to reaching out to young people to reiterate the Gates Foundation’s primary message – that graduating from high school and college is crucial to their, and our, futures. While I am often skeptical of these types of efforts – too often gauzy, feel-good, and naïve – this one avoids most of the pitfalls of many others that have come before. This program has an edge that I think will appeal to kids. It’s directed at them without pandering to them. The “Get Schooled” video made it clear that staying in school – and working hard while there – isn’t easy, or even expected, for a lot of kids. Future efforts also promise to make it clear that, too often, adults’ decisions (or lack of vision and courage) are an impediment to those kids who are determined to do the right thing.

For more information, go to www.getschooled.com.

- Rodney Ferguson, Managing Director & Principal

We decided to do a little reconnaissance of our own to uncover how institutions can improve their tours.

We interviewed a campus tour guide from a prominent, top-ranked public university and uncovered that the cliché is alive and well. Our insider crafted the following top ten ideas to improve  a university’s tour-guiding game:

1.    Be consistent with the institution’s brand or help defy stereotypes
2.    Remember what students care about
3.    Make it interactive
4.    Keep it punchy
5.    Save the cheese for the dining halls
6.    Tailor the tour
7.    Tell stories
8.    … but don’t narrate novels
9.    Prompt questions
10.  Be honest

Check out the full interview.