An Identity Package That Attracts Parents, Encourages Spirit, and Deepens Connections with Alumni

A strong identity can position a school as a leader in thinking, causing it to rise above competitors in the eyes of the family decision maker. When clients come to TWIST looking to discover their brand, we begin our process with researching the school and its competition to find its exclusive marketing position and key messaging platforms. Defining and then showcasing the uniqueness and personality of an institution in a brand campaign helps it to instill confidence and inspire devotion among students, parents, faculty, staff, and community.

Brands, like people, are always evolving. Don’t fall behind the competition with outdated branding. Education is about preparing for the future, so keep your identity forward-thinking. For already established schools, consistent yet refreshed branding is essential to keep an academic legacy of excellence going.

TWIST helped St. Ignatius High School, a century old institution, solidify its place as the top Catholic education for boys by creating a marketing strategy and identity package that updated its imagery and messaging while still speaking to its long legacy. From academics to athletics to faith, TWIST provided St. Ignatius with an identity that unified its different sectors, creating bold navy and gold identifications that would propel the school into another 100 years of teaching.

Storytelling that Leads to a Deep Appreciation for Difference

Advertising is arguably most important for newer schools. When trying to increase awareness and enrollment, it can be difficult to establish yourself among more historical institutions. As a newly founded school, it’s a great time to position yourself as a place full of never-before-seen opportunities to both prospective families and new faculty and staff.  

A well-designed viewbook makes a great first impression. It showcases your school in a beautifully put together nutshell. It’s like the front door to a school. With the right paint color and a bit of landscaping, your viewbook pushes you one step further to receiving a student’s acceptance decision.

For Hathaway Brown, an all-girls private K-12 school, TWIST was tasked with designing a viewbook to show visiting families and potential new students that brings to life their “learn for life” approach to education. Our design team created a bright and airy book outlining each educational step in a student’s evolution into a young leader through Hathaway Brown’s lifelong programs.

Each viewbook is a take-home reminder of a prospective family’s visit to the school. When it’s eye-catching, the more likely someone will open it again, show their friends, or even keep it forever as a memento of a life-changing decision in their education.

Building Brand & Advertising Through Expansion Yields Big Results

When trying to drive enrollment, you can’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Recommendations from family and friends go a long way, especially when dealing with children’s education. Ad campaigns can help to generate more positive word-of-mouth by repeatedly reminding someone of the school’s name or a call to action. TWIST collaborates with CMT, an independent media agency, who places our school ads in the right place and at the right time for our target audience to view.

Long-time partner Lutheran West hired TWIST to tackle the promotion of its new middle school. Our advertising campaign introduced the middle school’s faith-based curriculum, athletics, fine arts program, and more, by showcasing student and teacher talents. This was a unique opportunity for Lutheran West to position itself as an extension of an already established high school with access to all the high-school’s current offerings, plus more. A media plan was developed that reached the middle school parents and students, as well as high school parents and students with a goal of leading to an admissions tour to get to know the administration, students, and teachers. Our #GoWest campaign was successful, filling middle school enrollments for the first fall semester.

Ready to transform your school? Find out more about our thoughtfully packaged, flat-rate marketing solutions.

Celebrating Pride as a company is about long-term, year-round support of a community, rather than a “rainbow-washing” campaign to profit from traditionally marginalized individuals.

It’s June again, and many banks, restaurants, and hotel chains have strategically fixed a rainbow logo on their social media and called it Pride. The LGBTQ+ community isn’t so easily fooled. Each year, brands are dragged on Twitter for promoting Pride merch and sales while donating to anti-gay politicians and foundations. In conclusion – consumers can see right through you.

At the heart of this issue is authenticity in corporate media. Hopping on trends is essential to staying relevant on social media and in advertising. But being LGBTQ+ isn’t a fad to be followed. Celebrating Pride as a company is about long-term, year-round support of a community, rather than a “rainbow-washing” campaign to profit from traditionally marginalized individuals.

Consumers are less inclined to trust advertising than ever before, especially when it is delivered digitally. That is why it is so crucial that your brand’s advertising and social media are always aligned with your brand’s values. Being authentic to your branding is the best way to attract and retain a loyal base of customers.

So what are your brand’s core values? How do you distill your company culture into core beliefs with an emotional appeal to the consumer? As long as you are authentic, your message should resonate.

Advertising isn’t always “Place ad, get sales.” Sometimes, advertising is about playing the long game. Branding over time increases public awareness and perception. So break out of the gimmicks and find your own brand voice.

Not sure where to start? Need a little help finding your niche? Reach out to CMT for brand research and planning services.

When the #FearlessThinkers were looking for a new content writer and the name Ellie Roberto showed up in our inbox, we were beyond excited. A long time friend of the agency (Ellie’s mom went to college with Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer, Connie Ozan), Ellie has long been interested in joining the team.

“Working in an agency setting was something I’d been wanting to explore for a while. Most of my previous professional experience is in journalism, so I wanted to jump into something more creative that also had a marketing/strategic side,” she said. “I applied to TWIST because I knew it would provide the artistic outlet I needed. I’ve also always been a fan of TWIST’s bold style and what they’ve done for the Cleveland community through its services.”

Ellie will be working under Director of Content Monina Wagner, to develop sound content, social, and community strategies, while also learning more about development of brand strategies, short-form advertising copy, and long-form copy development for TWIST clients. In her first few weeks at TWIST she has already dove in to assist with client social strategies, influencer strategy development, and case study writing.

“Ellie possesses an undeniable energy that she carries through to her work. Her creativity is contagious, proving she will be a valuable asset to the TWIST content team.”

— Monina Wagner, Director of Content

As Ellie integrates more into the team, she is looking forward to seeing her words and ideas come to life – no matter what form that takes, as well as working closely with the rest of the Fearless Thinkers!

Research shows that TV and digital video commercials are the two best ways to increase brand awareness and recall. CMT can help your business take advantage of new connected TV advertising opportunities. Contact us to learn more about seeing your brand on streaming TV.

There are more streaming TV options than ever before, and all this competition has channels finding creative ways to get new subscribers. The average adult in the U.S. has about nine streaming services in the US. That’s a lot of dollars each month devoted to streaming. So how are these channels trying to make streaming from multiple services more accessible for their users?

Services like Disney+ and HBO Max are considered turning to ad-supported models, a la Hulu. According to eMarketer, “Offering cheaper, ad-supported subscription tiers is a win-win for streaming services in a crowded market looking to increase revenues without going overboard on raising subscription costs.”

As a result, this will continue to widen the connected TV (CTV) advertising market and give marketers more opportunities to choose which services to align their brand with. Digging into the demographic data for each streaming service will become even more critical as this space continues to grow. Distilling where your target audience is streaming will help improve not only sales numbers but the user experience on the platform.

Research shows that TV and digital video commercials are the two best ways to increase brand awareness and recall. CMT can help your business take advantage of new connected TV advertising opportunities. Contact us to learn more about seeing your brand on streaming TV.

The Fearless Thinkers are excited to have Andrea Buskirk joining our growing team of Account Executives. Andrea brings a background in education and real estate to the team with a strong verbal and written communication skillset. While she’s currently located in Las Vegas, she and her family will be joining the Cleveland community this Spring. Andrea has translated her background in teaching to account services, bringing a high level of client interaction and understanding business needs and making sure all clients are treated with the same level of care across the board.

“Just over a month in,” says Andrea, “I can confidently say TWIST far exceeded expectations in an agency and business to work for. TWIST is a community first and foremost, and that is something that is harder and harder to find in today’s career world and is what I value the most in any company I work for.”

“We’re lucky to have an account services team that genuinely cares for our clients and agency. Already I have seen Andrea step up, learn her clients’ business goals and objectives and build relationships with them. Andrea’s professionalism, energy, and care of the TWIST product will be a benefit to each client she comes in contact with.”

— Charlene Coughlin, President

The account services team at TWIST not only is working with clients day to day, but also with the internal team and partners, as well as managing more than 100 projects in the agency. Andrea’s organizational expertise, as well as ability to think two steps ahead is something that has already quickly impressed all team members.

“The sense of community in TWIST is beyond compare. In my first month, I have been able to see how each employee steps up to get projects accomplished. When one person may need additional time for something, there are other employees ready to pitch in without complaint to get everything where it needs to be on time. In my professional career, I have never been part of a community like that. There is a strong sense of team.”

— Andrea Buskirk, Account Executive

Monina Wagner’s skills as a content marketer have carried her through a career that includes leadership positions at local television news, the Cleveland Clinic and most recently Content Marketing Institute where she helped the founder and godfather of content marketing, Joe Pulizzi build the value, reputation, and community of Content Marketing World. We are thrilled that she has joined our team as the Director of Content.

Monina has been working closely with our team for over six months as a freelancer, developing content angles, story development, and social media strategies. She will continue to do that in-house, but also will be overseeing and assisting with development of long form copy, writing radio and tv spots, as well as working side-by-side with the creative team to concept and develop campaigns for TWIST clients.

“We have long been a fan of Monina’s and knew we wanted to further develop our content marketing expertise in-house. As a member of the team, Monina is working side-by-side with all team members to bring her expertise in storytelling and content development to all TWIST clients. Her energy, passion for clients, and expertise brings another level of leadership to the team.”

— Charlene Coughlin, President

Monina began her career working in Cleveland local news as an assignment manager, conceptualizing and developing news stories, while also curating content. She worked closely with producers, reporters and photographers and was a part of the team bringing special event coverage, like the elections, to her audiences. She has worked closely with the media as part of the in-house team at the Cleveland Clinic, developing story angles, content, and expressing the goals and objectives of the hospital. As the Social Media and Community Manager at Content Marketing Institute, Monina was the front-line voice of the brand, building relationships across the globe with marketing managers, directors, content writers, and more. She regularly hosted Twitter Chats, Slack Groups, and LinkedIn chat to ensure that the community was engaged.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Fearless Thinkers at TWIST. TWIST employs an incredibly talented team that clients want to work with. They not only listen to stakeholders but tell dynamic stories to engage an audience. In this ever-changing landscape, I’m excited to build and foster communities through compelling content.”

— Monina Wagner, Director of Content

A lover of Disney, Monina was also a member of Disney Parks Moms Panel (now rebranded as PlanDisney). She was a writer and spokesperson for the brand, bringing her authentic voice to channels across the globe. You can catch Monina on Twitter at @MoninaW where she regularly shares her insight into storytelling and marketing, as well as all things Disney and the Cavs.

Will Alford comes to TWIST with more than a decade of experience and offers wisdom, guidance, a unique world view and proven approaches to TWIST clients seeking logo and identity, collateral and digital outcomes for brand expression.

“Will brings a strong understanding of brand development and business function. He is an outstanding listener and problem solver and combines a refined eye for design with a noble leadership style. I am excited for our clients to meet him and experience the value he offers.”

Mike Ozan, Co-Founder & CEO

After an extensive career in graphic design, including working on a number of restaurant brands, Will Alford joins the team of Fearless Thinkers in the role of Art Director. In his role, Will be working closely with both the creative and account services teams to understand client goals and objectives, and problem-solving solutions to effectively communicate on behalf of TWIST clients.

“Will’s aesthetic combines the extraordinary with the practical. He solves problems well and his work is enthusiastic, clean and smart. With a strong sense of type, color, form and function, Will is adding depth to our digital and traditional work and has already been successful in achieving outstanding outcomes for our beloved clients.”

Connie Ozan, Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer

Will will oversee the design side of projects from brand strategy through design execution with the team, including working on brand identities and campaign concepts and executions. “I wanted to join a great team who shared my values in design and culture. I’m looking forward to working on any and all types of projects that come to TWIST — whatever the task I am ready.”

“We’re thrilled to have Will on the team — from day 1 he has stepped in to collaborate with the team and understand each of our clients in-depth. Will’s love of design and advertising will inspire all team members, as well as our clients.”

Charlene Coughlin, President

Will’s background includes freelancing for Black Greek Step Shows, working with various small businesses, mega churches, nonprofits and restaurateurs where he learned to collaborate and lead other designs to develop effective campaigns. Will is interested in all things movies and films, seeing a story verbally told in combination with how it’s visually displayed to its audience — the use of lighting and camera angles. He’s also a big foodie, lover of sports and architecture, as well as interested in real estate and car detailing.