Telling their story: How universities are depicting 2020

You’ve heard 2020 referred to as “unprecedented,” “surreal,” “unpredictable,” and “a dumpster fire.” I can’t think of an industry left unscathed from the effects of a pandemic, societal unrest, or political uncertainty. Higher education was certainly not immune from 2020. It was already on a burning platform and COVID forced a reckoning we hoped to postpone for a few more years.

As a year concludes, especially one as tangled as 2020, it is important for a brand to pause, to pull back and to tell its story for that year.

A year in review video is the route to take. These videos, however, are challenging to create because at universities, so much happens annually — from speaking events to annual activities to the one-of-a-kind circumstances.

Not all institutions produce a year in review video. It can be a beast and come with a lot of pressure!

In the several years our team created a year in review video, each year comes with criticism, praise, and everything in between. These videos won’t be your entire story, it can’t be! Everyone has their own experience and perspective. Capture what you can, be true to your brand, and do your best to tell a story that you believe is authentic to your community.

How do you select which visuals to capture? How do you decide which story to tell?

Like any good marketing output, you’ve got to force yourself to write a creative brief. You need to set a kickoff and brainstorm with a core team — usually a creative director, video producer, strategist, and copywriter. If you don’t have those exact positions, then think of roles: someone to write the script, someone to create the video, and someone to conceptualize alongside a strategy. From there, it’s about discipline and sticking to the story.

With these year in review videos, I’ve found the effective ones to be authentic, honest, inspiring, and inclusive.

Don’t make this a marketing video. It is a brand story.

I perused the inter webs and these are a few that seemed to have a deliberate, succinct, and well-produced story. These were solid look back videos. And yes, I am including the one our team produced at Trinity University because I think it told a powerful brand story and, for the first time, we didn’t just tell the story within our campus walls. We, as with other institutions, saw ourselves as part of the world around us.

Again, these videos are a challenge — It is no small feat gathering the footage throughout the year and producing this type of annual brand story. But, it is worth your time to produce.

Communities are stronger when we can depict what we experienced, and overcame together. Remember, this is your brand story and it is yours to tell.

Nice work to the teams who created these and the various others I didn’t list here.

If you found other year in review videos you liked, I’d love to see them.