LaGuardia Community College

Challenge:

Originally founded in 1968 as Community College No. 9, LaGuardia disrupted the landscape by offering higher education for all. And it quickly became the world’s most diverse campus, with students from 160 nations using it as a springboard for productive careers.

In today’s economy, under President Gail Mellow’s leadership, LaGuardia has renewed its relevance by experimenting boldly with programs that challenge expectations⎯like teaming with hotels to promote tourism in Long Island City, partnering with Goldman Sachs to grow small businesses in Queens, and pioneering the e-portfolio (since adapted by the Ivy Leagues) to revolutionize how we measure student learning. Still, the brand image has lagged far behind the school’s smarts and esprit de corps. When President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative thrust community colleges into the national spotlight, BBMG was charged with rebranding the college as a bold driver of innovation at the center of a vital national conversation.

Insight:

Following an extensive research process that included site visits, archival research, in-depth executive interviews and journal studies with a cross-section of students, we repositioned LaGuardia as a challenger brand to better honor the key themes we uncovered, namely the school’s relentless drive to experiment, its fearlessness, its commitment to pushing boundaries and its track record in creating game-changing solutions.

Solution:

BBMG articulated a simple truth that became the new brand anthem: Dare to Do More. Tapping the college’s can-do entrepreneurial spirit, the new anthem effectively positions LaGuardia as a disruptive innovator, daring students and faculty to challenge expectations and do more to advance themselves and the world.

The brand platform has been embraced from the top down, beginning with President Gail Mellow, who has embodied the messaging at every opportunity—in speeches to the faculty and students, in communications with foundations and in conversations with the press.

Launched in fall 2011, BBMG worked with LaGuardia in the preceding months to lay a foundation for building consensus from the inside-out. Executive council workshops, faculty committee presentations, town hall meetings and regular newsletter updates all played a critical role. A student-led guerrilla marketing campaign tagged sidewalks in Long Island City (where the college is based) with brand expressions that generated buzz before the new identity was officially unveiled.

Morale among faculty — both old guard and new — has soared. Students are proud to wear the gear. And the leadership team has restored focus to the important role that LaGuardia plays in disrupting the higher education landscape.