"Power of Liberal Arts" Public Information Campaign

Winner of the Silver Anvil award given by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) in recognition of public relations best practices, two EXCEL awards given by the Association Media and Publishing in recognition of excellence and leadership in nonprofit association media, publishing, marketing, and communications, and named one of the top 50 grassroots campaigns in the country by CQ Roll Call

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) launched its “Power of Liberal Arts” campaign to address misperceptions about liberal arts education and to promote liberal arts colleges. CIC aims to influence the national conversation by reaching not only leaders of CIC’s member colleges and universities but also prospective college students, parents, and high school guidance counselors.

Campaign print pieces include a media kit used by member presidents and PR directors in meetings with local media, and a poster and college directory for guidance counselors to share with their students. CIC also created a mobile-responsive website and a Twitter feed featuring cartoon avatars Libby and Art (get it?).

Design Contributors: Vladimir Gorshkov and Lindsey McCool Loegters

Campaign Media Kit

The signature print publication of the campaign was designed for member presidents and public relations directors to use the information in meetings with local media and to help promote the liberal arts and private colleges to prospective students and their parents. CIC, however, routinely shares the media kit more broadly with national journalists, foundation officers, and high school guidance counselors.

The kit contained key messages and talking points for advocacy efforts and infographics on the benefits of a liberal arts education.

“Liberal Arts in Action” Microsite

Developed with the help of Old River Creative, the www.LiberalArtsLife.org website draws on campaign materials to tell a story about the value of a liberal arts education through video clips, photographs, speaker quotations, and animated data visualizations. The site is designed to appeal to prospective students and to help parents and high school counselors as they guide students through the college selection and application process.

NACAC Conference Materials

In an effort to influence expand the campaign's audience by reaching out to high school guidance counselors, CIC had a booth at the 2014 National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) Conference. A variety of pieces such as signage, postcards, and posters were created for this event.

In order to drive traffic to the booth, conference attendees could enter a drawing for a free iPad Mini if they tweeted a selfie with campaign avatars Libby & Art.

After learning in our focus groups and at the NACAC conference that many students and parents did not have a sense of how many liberal arts colleges exist in the U.S., we created a college directory of CIC's member institutions for guidance counselors to share with students and their parents.