Ologie

Students, parents, and counselors still read emails, but not the way you think. Join Dayana Kibilds for the Higher Ed Insights Summit (free digital conference) next Thursday as she shares five techniques to maximize how people consume email. More details here: https://ologie.co/4fm7XKI

Over half of Gen Alpha’s parents have started talking to them about college. Our latest study surveyed over 800 parents to understand how the next generation is feeling, thinking, and talking about higher ed. Download today. https://ologie.co/3yjKkSi

Next week, our president Bill Faust will be speaking at the CASE Summit for Leaders in Advancement. He’ll be joined by Rebecca Boucher, MBA of Rutgers University, Kelly Hiller of Purdue University, and Jessica McKesey of the University of Maryland to discuss how relationship-building campaigns can enhance the efforts of any college or university. Hope to see you there!

CASE Summer Institutes is Dayana Kibilds' favorite professional event of the year. She’s been a faculty member in the Communications & Marketing Institute for five years. This year, she taught on brand positioning and audience insights, and shared her most tactical advice on writing emails people will read and getting stakeholders to collaborate with your strategy. Throughout the week, she heard a few consistent themes: The landscape is charged. As we kicked off the week, we asked new professionals what was on their minds. The biggest concern? Communicating effectively in today's complex political and societal climate. Institutions must be ready with clear, proactive policies to respond with confidence to these challenges. Silos are still getting the best of us. Despite all our collaborative tools and mission statements, teams across institutions aren't working together effectively. It's not anyone's fault. The environment is demanding, and everyone is just trying to keep up. Empathy is the solution. Teams can't work towards shared goals without trust, and trust requires authenticity and empathy. The day-to-day is keeping teams from being strategic. There's too much work and not enough time for planning. I believe it. First, stop the things that aren’t performing, and the things that aren’t connected to a greater goal. Get more efficient by using tools to streamline your work. Then, invest your resources in planning and strategy. This way, whatever you implement and create will actually be worth it. Learning and sharing is energizing. I overheard one attendee say, "I wish I could stay here, attend all the sessions, and keep learning forever." I heard others say they started the week feeling very burnt out, and after four days of sharing and learning, they felt re-invigorated and motivated to go back to their jobs. This is a lesson for all of us: Find each other, share more, give more, and let’s keep going.

Gen Alpha’s most trusted influencers, their parents, have some concerns about higher ed. Check them out here, and download our latest research on Gen Alpha’s parents to learn more about their thoughts and feelings on higher ed. https://ologie.co/3WgHbvY

The progress of the internet, data collection, and machine learning have been moving at lightning speed in the last few years. With the release of ChatGPT and other platforms, we’re reeling on artificial intelligence — contemplating how AI might impact our world and the roles we wake up to every day. For most folks, nothing’s changed yet, at least not in any way with doom-and-gloom connotations (unless you’re a college student copying and pasting an essay explicitly written through AI software). But in our world of branding and marketing for higher education, AI is a tool we’ve been using for a long time. So, we’re pulling back the curtain to share a behind-the-scenes look at how our team uses AI to do the big work we do for our clients. Keep reading: https://ologie.co/4cyImwe

In our work with Valparaiso University, we started by immersing ourselves in the brand and its history so that we could better understand the university’s mission, which would inform a robust messaging strategy and a distinctive creative platform to help tell Valpo’s story. What emerged was a clear view of what Valpo offers its students and its region: leadership from service, curiosity that crosses disciplines, and above all, a penetrating joy. But this was only half the picture. The real key to arriving at the new brand platform was understanding that all of these things were firmly anchored — in community, in common values, and in faith. Joining those twin discoveries together, the platform became unmistakable: “Grounded, we radiate.”

Dayana Kibilds is the only Ologist based outside of the USA, and she has spent over a decade working for and with universities worldwide, so she knows a thing or two about the international employee experience. She recently appeared on Eddie Francis’ podcast, I Wanna Work There, to share her American visa story, her search for a higher ed job as an immigrant, and how colleges and universities can invest in a better talent experience for international faculty and staff. “There’s no easy solution, but it does affect students, indirectly and directly, if we even just try to talk about what the international employee experience might be.” Listen to the full episode here: https://ologie.co/3RMDfjF

It’s true that three quarters of Gen Alpha spend at least 2 hours per day consuming some kind of content, but screen time isn’t the whole story. For more insights on Gen Alpha, download our latest research study today. https://lnkd.in/gH2zs8ST 

Our latest research is here: Welcome to the era of the parent. Take a look inside the minds (and households) of those raising Gen Alpha. They’ll be headed your way before you know it. Download the brand new study today - https://ologie.co/4cmmS5Y