From Brand Strategy to Award-Winning Digital + Creative

3 Major Awards

Telly People’s Gold, Communicator Award of Excellence, and Ed Advertising Silver

Telly People’s Gold

Communicator Award of Excellence

Ed Advertising Silver

A bold brand transformation turns enrollment challenges into award-winning momentum.

Facing sustained enrollment pressure in the hyper-competitive Boston market, Curry College partnered with Carnegie to redefine its brand, differentiate its story, and launch a modern, full-scale digital and creative strategy built for growth.

The Challenge

Faced with the demographic cliff in the hyper-competitive market of Boston, MA, Curry College struggled with enrollment for years. As a small, private college with a new president, they knew they needed a bold vision and to start telling their story in a new and differentiated way.

Our Approach

Curry decided to partner with Carnegie to develop and implement a modern and impactful brand strategy. Along with utilizing Carnegie’s proprietary archetype system to discover their brand personality, they also utilized Carnegie’s groundbreaking psychographic student segmentation process, called Darts. With a highly engaged campus, Carnegie’s inclusive brand process was critical.

Through research, workshops, and consensus-building, Carnegie identified Curry’s unique market position, developed a new institutional logo, created student personas, designed a compelling creative campaign, and launched an expansive digital campaign to reach new markets. Creative assets, including photo, video, print collateral, and website updates, accompanied a marketing plan to serve as the ultimate roadmap for implementation.

Visual Identity Development

The Curry College seal was actually not intended to be used in conjunction with the wordmark. However, without the icon, staff felt the logo looked incomplete and felt compelled to add something official to it. Unfortunately, the old-school seal added to the wordmark’s dated feel and helped form an incorrect brand impression in the market.

The Results

Curry was recognized in a Boston Globe article for its rebranding innovations, and the campaign commercial “Made for You” won People’s Gold at the Telly Awards and a Communicator Award of Excellence 2024. The digital retargeting ads also won a Silver at the 39th Annual Educational Advertising Awards. Curry is now equipped with a brand standards guide, message platform, comprehensive marketing campaign, and tools to segment marketing communications for prospective students. With an eye toward increasing enrollment, they have expanded their digital advertising across multiple states, able to tell their story in a focused and compelling way based on exactly who Curry is.

What I appreciate most about Carnegie is that they invested time and effort in really getting to know us. It’s unusual to get that level of engagement and integration from a vendor. The research was incredibly valuable, and the branding process galvanized our community around a common voice and challenged us to take a bold position in our very competitive market.

Jay Gonzalez President Curry College

Services That Drive Success

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