Through strategic, cross-platform storytelling, we support Santa Clara University’s enrollment, advancement, and leadership priorities. UMC units include brand strategy; design and visual identity; social and earned media; web and digital communications; and crisis, internal, and executive communications. UMC produces Santa Clara’s award-winning alumni magazine, and, as the University’s central communications unit, works closely with other University communicators to build community, share best practices, and offer training and support for consistent and effective brand storytelling. Unsure of how to start? Reach out to your campus partner on the Brand and Marketing Strategy Team or email umc@scu.edu.
Brand and Marketing Strategy
The Brand and Marketing team is responsible for the University’s brand and marketing strategies in alignment with SCU’s vision, mission, and values. We work closely with our campus partners to collaborate, support, and develop unit-level marketing strategy and messaging, and coordinate execution within UMC. Need help with a project? Fill out a project request form and tell us what you need. If you're not sure who your brand and marketing partner is, contact Harold Gutmann.
Media Relations and Communications
The Media Relations team is responsible for sharing our stories throughout popular media to increase the University’s visibility, enhance its reputation, and demonstrate its unique value among our key audiences. We work to gain media coverage in print, online, broadcast, and through social media channels. We also manage crisis communications for the SCU community. The Media Relations team trains and mentors campus community members to proactively work with media to showcase scholarship and research, conceptualize and place op-eds with key media outlets, and conduct effective media interviews. Visit Media Relations Support.
Design
The Design team is responsible for implementing and overseeing the institution’s visual brand identity and communication standards and practices. The team supports the University’s brand and marketing strategies in alignment with SCU’s, vision, mission, and values. The Creative Services team provides quality visual assets, design consulting, and visual communication tools that support and enhance the University brand and ensure consistency of look and feel. Services include web and print design, art direction, photography, and production management. Find guidelines on how to apply visual identity elements correctly.
Digital
The Digital team is responsible for building an efficient and effective design system for SCU's web properties and tools, including the University's content management system (TerminalFour), events calendar (LiveWhale), internal HTML Email Manager, Phonebook, and Campus Map. We partner with Web Development and Technology Training to assess and implement new enterprise-wide solutions that improve user experience and meet brand and accessibility requirements. Request access to our systems, submit a web support request, browse available web content types, and find more information on web design and development.
Santa Clara Magazine
The University’s flagship publication, Santa Clara Magazine strives to embody the breadth of all that makes up Santa Clara University in terms of ideas and events that are shaping our world, and engaging in the big conversations society is having—or should be having. With its home at California’s oldest university—which is also in the heart of Silicon Valley—SCM is firmly rooted in its Jesuit and Catholic heritage. With a commitment to strengthening the bonds of community and to helping alumni and friends connect with the life of the University, ours is a magazine of the mind and the heart and the spirit, a place for compelling stories that illuminate and delight and offer a new way of seeing. We reach people in print quarterly and tens of thousands more with the digital edition, including weekly digital features.
Social Media and Emerging Strategy
The Social Media team is responsible for the University’s primary social media channels to engage with diverse audiences, including prospective and current students, donors, alumni, parents, faculty and staff, and the broader community. Campus units managing their own social media channels work closely with us to present a consistent brand, tone, and story across all social channels. Our staff videographer shows the breadth of life in and around the University, as well as on location, with imagery that supports our verbal branding messages. With selective support from talented photography freelancers, we expand our expression of the SCU brand with photos and videos that tell the stories of our diverse and dynamic community. We offer visual communication support by providing excellent imagery for publications, websites, advertising, and more. Through occasional workshops and presentations, we guide and train units across campus on ways to identify imagery needs and improve their visual communications.
Storytelling
The Storytelling team serves as the University’s content specialists and provides writing and editing expertise to ensure a unified message that reinforces a powerful Santa Clara University brand. We create content to engage University audiences with the correct writing voice, tone, and style. Team members are responsible for research, writing, revising, editing, and proofreading the marketing content and stories that reflect the University’s vision and strategic plan. Services include editorial project management, development of content for print and digital communications, market research, and guidance and training for units across campus, both one-on-one and through University Marketing and Communications-hosted campus workshops.