Albuquerque Academy
Considered out-of-reach by many families because of its extraordinary assets, Albuquerque Academy needed a message that could show best-fit families—regardless of their socioeconomic status—the common ground they share with the school and one another.
The American University in Cairo
With a campaign that straddled three continents and four cultures, AUC needed to make the case not for the university’s need, but for an ambitious shared vision of what higher education can and must offer to Egypt and the Middle East—Better thinkers: Better futures.
The American University of Paris
The American University of Paris didn’t just need more students. It needed the right students—adventurous young people the world over, ready to join a multi-national student body, experience an “American-style” education, and explore one of the world’s most iconic, culturally influential cities.
The Archer School for Girls
Archer, young and accomplished but still often overlooked in L.A., needed to compete based on its own strengths. “What if,” we asked, Archer could establish an altogether new axis on which the school could stand out in the competitive L.A. market?
Armstrong Atlantic State University
To attract new interest from within and beyond Savannah, Armstrong needed a message that grew from, rather than ignored, its deep local roots, showcasing the university’s position as a center for Savannah’s economic, scientific, cultural, and civic vibrancy.
The Baldwin School
Baldwin’s tradition as an intellectual powerhouse was in danger of warping into a reputation as an academic sweatshop. Our work together revealed the truth about Baldwin’s thinking girls, a concept that went playfully viral throughout the community.
Buena Vista University
How can another private liberal arts college in small-town Iowa be seen amidst all the competition: flagship publics, regional privates, affordable local options? CRANE demonstrated how this exceptional faculty really sees each student: “Because we see you, you see yourself—and your future—in a clearer light.”
Calvin College
Already, Calvin was well known for delivering a fine Christian education. What not enough people realized: At this remarkable institution, Christian education and intellectual courage are indivisibly intertwined.
Calvin College, development
A shared purpose, not an institution’s need, inspires giving. With a donor base especially careful about the responsible use of God’s money, Calvin’s new campaign needed to show that Calvin, educator of young Reformed thinkers, is the gateway to much broader giving.
California Western School of Law
CRANE helped California Western learn to disregard the treacherous law school rankings game. Instead, we invited prospects into a more nuanced dialogue, asking them to consider the law and law school in the widest possible sense.
Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
The time had come for the world’s largest Gothic cathedral to remind New Yorkers and visitors from around the world: The Cathedral is more than a building. It’s also a Conversation. And you are more than a body. You are also a Spirit. You are a traveler. You are also a Pilgrim. You are you and also You.
Catlin Gabel School
Catlin Gabel had “arrived,” so to speak, under the care of gifted leaders, but maintaining their resource-rich progressive commitment to education through relationship would require a more intentional approach to positioning and marketing.
College Preparatory School
A remarkable academic enclave tucked in an East Bay ravine, this generically-named powerhouse needed to show prospects the holistic, fun, and social context of learning that stellar test scores and matriculation records alone couldn’t convey: This is College Prep.
Earlham School of Religion
Earlham turned to CRANE to help conduct a far-reaching conversation about Quakerdom’s future. The book Among Friends, published excerpts of our report, ultimately served as a springboard for a national discussion and the foundation for a five-year strategic plan.
Emma Willard School
CRANE research showed that in the context of Emma Hart Willard’s future-changing vision, all-girls is not outmoded and boarding is not a barrier; instead, they are the creative conditions that have, past and present, engendered this school’s powerful outcomes.
Ensworth School
With the opening of an innovative high school to complement its long-established elementary school, Ensworth needed to capture what’s always been true as well as what’s new in one unified positioning message.
The Galloway School
Mr. Galloway said, “Ours is a constantly changing approach to education.” Did this mean “the Galloway Way” couldn’t be definitively explained? CRANE helped draw an important distinction: Rather than starting at how, the better question for Galloway people to answer was “Why?”
The Galloway School, development
How could Galloway quickly raise funds in time to secure a newly available athletic field five miles from campus? CRANE reframed the goal and the perceptions of Galloway families with the Home Fields campaign.
Georgia Southern University
Georgia Southern had long battled for recognition against forces much larger than itself. When the university asserted its uniqueness, instead of its relative merits, Georgia Southern became the first-choice option for its best-fit students.
Georgia Civil Justice Foundation
To help the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation shun negative ideological frames and claim positive new rhetorical territory, CRANE developed a values-based narrative that evokes a foundational American ideal: fair play.
The Leelanau School
By reframing and refining what this school already did best—five-senses learning on Lake Michigan’s shore—Leelanau revealed to searching families nationally the specialized education they yearned for.
Loyola Marymount University
Award-winning CRANE marketing for LMU had long helped attract plenty of excellent-fit students to the university. But the robust freshman classes reflected a nationwide trend at liberal arts institutions: an increasing imbalance of female to male students.
McCallie School
This exemplary all-boys boarding school needed to overcome the powerful Gen X-parent bias against “sending a child away.” By taking a counterintuitive CRANE approach, McCallie found its most fertile markets and showed them how this boarding school actually brings families closer together.
Messiah College
Reclaiming this college’s founding values meant embracing tension—not the tension that strains and stresses, but the kind of positive tension that holds together the disparate parts of a balanced whole: Faith/Intellect, Discipline/Imagination, Wisdom/Experience, Discovery/Belief, Home/Journey, Work/Play.
Pace University
With ambitious new financial and academic plans, a worrisome slide in inquiries and applications, and a fast approaching recruitment cycle, Pace needed to proactively reconnect with its best-fit, experiential, career-minded prospects.
Preservation League of New York State
To help the Preservation League speak out both for itself and for the state’s threatened historic sites, CRANE literally “gave voice” to the endangered landscapes and buildings of New York.
Portsmouth Abbey School
Portsmouth Abbey needed to learn how to leverage its rich legacy, to invite students to take root in a centuries-old tradition—a way of thinking, living, acting, and treating one another—with implications far greater than superficial comparison can show.
Reed College
Anticipating an ambitious 100th-anniversary campaign for endowment funds, Reed College wondered how to appeal to their fiercely intellectual and perennially critical alumni. The crane recommendation: counter sentimental fundraising traditions and highlight what most “Reedies” prize most about their Reed experience: learning to think critically—to REASON.
San Domenico High School
To counteract years of mixed messages, San Domenico’s single-sex boarding school needed to reclaim its real differentiator: the girls who in four years emerge as confident, articulate, self-assured, globally-aware young women, each one ready to forge a path all her own.
San Domenico School, pre-K to grade 8
In an era when many Gen X parents increasingly worry about their children growing up too fast, San Domenico’s secluded locale actually represented its greatest strength. Among its sheltering hills and nurturing adults, San Domenico students experience a more deliberate childhood.
Schools of The Sacred Heart San Francisco
Four seemingly separate entities, Convent & Stuart Hall Elementary & High Schools (for girls and boys), needed to remember that more than a shared budget held them together. These schools also shared the timeless Sacred Heart educational philosophy.
The Seven Hills School
After decades of “marketing avoidance,” the Seven Hills community transformed the way Cincinnati views their exceptional school in the span of just one year. How? We got their people to do the talking.
The Seven Hills School, development
The charts and graphs of a traditional case statement weren’t enough to inspire the generosity of this vibrant and emotive community. By turning every message into a direct, resonant benefit statement, we helped Seven Hills reach their campaign goal ahead of schedule.
Southeastern University
Throughout more than a decade of strategic partnership with CRANE, Southeastern has grown from college to university, doubled in size, quadrupled its campus, added countless new programs, and just generally and healthfully thrived in its new marketplace position.
State Bar of Georgia
The State Bar of Georgia wanted to elevate citizen appreciation of jury service and educate Georgia school children about our government’s third branch. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Samuel A. Alito, Jr. helped CRANE do both in two widely used films.
State Bar of Texas
Horse-race-style coverage, not character assessment or issues analysis, was clouding the higher principles in Texas judicial elections. Through films, media, and a public education initiative, the State Bar sought to turn the partisan debate into a positive statewide dialogue about essential founding values: Let’s do justice for Texas.
Stevenson School
Why Stevenson? Because a joyful life starts here. Through more than a decade, this signature phrase has informed an integrated program of enrollment and advancement communications and, eventually, the entire Stevenson culture.
Temple University
Temple needed to better frame its relationship with the students it really serves best. So we uncovered the Temple Constant: It’s a reciprocal relationship. Temple meets action-oriented students where they are, and supports their hard work with access to life- and career-changing opportunities.
Trinity College School
Trinity College School, an Ontario boarding school with an international make-up, a rich and holistic academic program, and a culture of confident, energetic experimentation, needed to show best-fit families not only what’s true about their school but also to help them realize what’s truly different.
The University of Alabama
The University of Alabama suffered from a dismaying array of graphic styles from every division, department, and special-interest group. An award-winning, versatile, and comprehensive CRANE identity system brought coherence in 1999 and still distinguishes the university today.
University of Notre Dame
Our enrollment and psychographic research for Notre Dame identified a significant right-brain/ left-brain binary amongst best-fit prospects. Drawing on this insight, the CRANE approach helped Notre Dame reach a three-year enrollment goal in just one year and guided recruitment messages through almost a decade more.
Wasatch Academy
Wasatch Academy, a New England-style boarding school founded in rural Utah in 1875, was spending too much time answering the wrong questions: Are you an LD school? Are you an LDS school? Are you for troubled kids? Are you for international kids? We helped the school raise a better question in families’ minds: Why should we consider this personal, adventuresome, internationally connected, college prep school for our child?
The Webb Schools
Webb needed a better way to describe its one-of-a-kind “coordinate structure,” to express how it honors the intellectual parity and formative differences between boys and girls. The Webb Schools: two-of-a-kind.
Westtown School
Instead of scrambling to adapt to the escalating demands of its existing market, Westtown shifted its focus to what really matters most—the spirited Quaker education the school has provided since 1799—and attracted new best-fit families nationwide.
Woodward Academy
A century of shifting demographics left Atlanta’s oldest and largest independent school nearly an hour’s drive from its primary market. With more accessible, pedigreed schools abounding, Woodward started looking like a fringe option. The task: show Atlanta families that “the sure thing” in the 21st century isn’t about convenience and prestige.
