Cornell University

A bold campaign
speaks for itself.

Donors have a million good causes they can choose to support. What they need from a university campaign is a way to connect with the mission they're funding — a human story that helps them feel the impact of their gift.

When Cornell partnered with SimpsonScarborough on their $5 billion comprehensive campaign, the seed of an incredible story had been waiting 156 years to be told. It came from something Ezra Cornell had written back at the university's founding: that Cornell exists to do the greatest good.

Services

Campaign Video

The Insight

We realized that the founder himself was speaking to us through the name of the campaign. So we developed a strategy that would pull on this thread thematically, and we created a bold narrative that literally ‘let Cornellians speak for themselves.’ This direction would give the brand a deeply personal touch, the kind of humanity it needed to *feel* as exciting as the future Cornell is building

Cornell Block C's

The Solution

We dug into Cornell’s archives to source the most compelling quotes and images from alumni, students, and faculty. The ones that resonated most with the campaign were selected for creative production, including an anthem video for launch and a campaign microsite for donors.

As a visual storytelling device, we designed a bold set of ‘Block Cs’ inspired by the classic character of old spirit marks found in the archives. Each told a stunning impact story for the campaign without so much as a single line of copy. These spread widely across campus via social media and, ultimately, we created more than 40 versions for Cornell’s different colleges, schools, and units.

The campaign launched successfully via global broadcast, despite needing to shift from an 800-person gala to a virtual event due to the pandemic. Our team rapidly responded by curating digital assets and a series of digital videos shot at multiple locations featuring President Martha E. Pollack, the campaign chair in New York City, Ezra Cornell’s family in Kansas, and students and faculty on Cornell’s three campuses.