Guide to Services

Office of Marketing & Communications

The Office of Marketing & Communications is here to serve the Drury community. We welcome your partnership and will enjoy collaborating with you to create effective communications.

M&C staff have a combined experience of more than 130 years in higher education communications, publications, editing, journalism and website management. In addition, the M&C Office has won more than 100 communications and marketing awards. We enjoy sharing our expertise with you to develop innovative and effective solutions to your communications challenges. From text organization and writing style to the size and format of a printed piece, our experience and creativity will enhance your communications.

Services & Specialities:

Overview

The Office of Marketing & Communications leads marketing and communications for Drury University, working in close partnership with offices, departments and individuals on campus. Our services include writing, editing, graphic design and project coordination associated with:

  • Brochures
  • Booklets
  • Posters
  • Event and Conference Programs
  • Drury Magazine
  • Surveys
  • Print and online advertising
  • Facebook and Twitter
  • Television and radio advertising
  • News releases
  • Media relations
  • The Drury website
  • Liaison with freelance photographers and illustrators
  • Marketing research
  • Strategic and tactical marketing planning
  • Communications advising

In addition, the Office of Marketing & Communications (M&C) is responsible for publishing usage guidelines for an approving any use of the Drury University logo, including licensing.

Why You Should Work With M&C

We strive for a consistent and professional appearance, style and underlying themes in all communications from the university. Every communication represents Drury, from department brochures and prospective student postcards to athletic brochures, the Drury Web site and Drury magazine. When those representations reinforce each other, they strengthen each other. When they are different, they compete for the recipient's attention and weaken Drury's reputation, recognition and prestige.

How We Work With You

This guide outlines the process for each service: what we can do, how we approach you as a client, the materials you should be ready to provide, and the usual timeline for the phases of a project.

Our services are provided at no charge to the Drury community. In general, production costs (photography, printing, mailing, purchase of air time, etc.) are borne by the campus client, not the Office of Marketing & Communications.

At times, high workload or the need for specialized skills (for example, video production) will require us to bring in a freelancer to assist with a project. The cost of those outside services will generally be borne by the campus client.

The best way to ensure a smooth project is to plan ahead. Consult this guide to learn how long writing, editing, design and production take. If you can initiate a project even further in advance, it will help even more, especially when our services are in high demand.

If you have questions, please call the Office of Marketing & Communications at 873-7228 or e-mail drury@drury.edu.

Back to Top

Logo use

Policy

Every publication, promotional item, mailing, etc., which will be seen by more than 50 people must carry either the Drury University logo or the Drury Athletics logo.

Any time the Drury University logo is used on an item, its use must be approved in advance by the Office of Marketing & Communications.

Guidelines for logo use are posted at www.drury.edu/logo.

Licensing

Any time the Drury University or Drury Athletic logo is provided to an outside vendor for use on a promotional item such as apparel, mug, athletic equipment, etc., the logo use must be approved before the item is produced.

The manufacturer or vendor should contact the Office of Marketing & Communications for projects related to the University logo and the Athletic Department for the projects related to the athletic logo. Oftentimes, the vendor or manufacturer will be asked to complete a licensing agreement. When items are ordered for on-campus use only (including sale in the Drury bookstore), no royalty will be charged. When items will be sold off-campus, a royalty will be negotiated. If no money will change hands for the products (for example, a family member who wants to make a gift for a team or alumnus/alumna), a simpler logo use approval form can substitute for the licensing agreement.

Licensing agreements require two signatures before they are considered final:

  • The highest-ranking administrator in the Office of Marketing & Communications and the Chief Financial Officer should sign off agreements pertaining to the university logo.
  • The highest-ranking administrator in the Athletics Department and the Chief Financial Officer should sign off agreements pertaining to the athletics logo.

Logo contact information:

  • The Office of Marketing and Communications is the contact for the Drury University logo. The highest-ranking administrator in the Athletic Dept. is the contact for the Athletics logo.

Approval Process

Before printing or producing an item, bring a proof or sample to the M&C office in Bay Hall 209 or e-mail an image showing the intended sizing, color and location of the logo to Marketing & Communucations at drury@drury.edu. We will respond as quickly as possible.

We will focus on the use of the Drury logo, but we hope clients would also welcome our advice on the design and layout of the item.

Back to Top

Publications

Every publication begins with a meeting, which should include the client, a designer and a writer.

The client should be prepared to discuss:

  • How much writing and photography is needed from M&C staff
  • Target audience
  • Quantity needed
  • Preferred delivery date
  • Budget for the project, including printing

Publication production is considered in phases:

  • Concept development
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Collecting art and photography
  • Design
  • Printing

Brochures

In the course of a year, many brochures are produced on campus. Wherever possible, M&C prefers to be consulted on the text and design of a brochure; in most cases, brochures should carry the Drury logo, and fall under the logo use policy. With enough advance notice, M&C can often design the brochure.

Brochure Timeline: 6 weeks
Review and edit text for Drury style and clarity: 1 week
Select art: 1 week (concurrent with editing)
Design: 2 weeks
Revision based on client feedback: 1 week
Printing: 2 weeks

If custom photography or more substantial writing is needed, the timeline will lengthen accordingly.

Booklets

"Booklet" refers to a publication in which pages are bound together but the piece is smaller than a magazine. Because booklets generally have more text, more photography, and more detailed information, they require more time to produce.

Booklet timeline: 8 weeks
Review and edit text for Drury style and clarity: 2 weeks
Select art: 1 week (concurrent with editing)
Design: 2 weeks
Revision based on client feedback: 2 weeks
Printing: 2 weeks

If custom photography or more substantial writing is needed, the timeline will lengthen accordingly.

Posters

A visually striking poster can generate excitement about an upcoming event. Posters generally require less writing and editing time, but more time for revision and feedback.

Poster timeline: 6 weeks
Review and edit text for Drury style and clarity: 1 week
Select art: 1 week (concurrent with editing)
Design: 2 weeks
Revision based on client feedback: 2 weeks
Printing: 1 week

Event and Conference Programs

The bottleneck in producing event and conference programs is most often the text; last-minute changes and additions are common. Artist and speaker photos often arrive late. In some cases, design can proceed with placeholder text and images, with adjustments once final text is received. This process has an impact on the editing, design and revision times.

Event and conference program timeline: 8 weeks
Review and edit text for Drury style and clarity: 2 weeks
Select art: 1 week (concurrent with editing)
Design: 3 weeks
Revision based on client feedback: 2 weeks
Printing: 1 week

Drury Magazine

As the flagship publication of Drury University, Drury magazine adheres to the highest standards in writing, photography, design and production. Each issue includes class notes, news from departments, athletics and development; and three to four feature articles on university initiatives, interesting alumni, etc. It is published two times a year and reflects the university's unique character (stressing community and the value of the individual) while keeping alumni and friends informed about its unique qualities.

Magazine planning has a long lead time; each issue's content is first outlined a year in advance, in order to coordinate with freelance writers and photographers. We generally finalize the table of contents for each issue three months before the date of publication.

Drury magazine timeline: 34 weeks
Writing (freelance and in-house): 12 weeks
Photography and art collection: 8 weeks (concurrent with writing)
Editing: 3 weeks
Design: 4 weeks
Proofreading and revision: 3 weeks
Printing: 3 weeks

The magazine is sent to alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and friends on or about:

April / May
October / November

Due to postal regulations, Drury magazine does not accept advertising for products.

Drury magazine is also available for viewing online at www.drury.edu/magazine, which features exclusive web extras, interactive features and additional content.

Back to Top

Print and online advertising

M&C staff will help write copy and design advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and websites. A last-minute review is not our preference; please contact us when you first consider advertising.

You should be prepared to discuss:

  • How much writing and photography is needed from M&C staff
  • Target audience
  • Dimensions of the ad as specified by the newspaper, magazine, website, etc.
  • Preferred delivery date

As a university policy, all advertising must carry the Drury logo and must be reviewed by M&C before it is submitted. Our marketing campaigns are based on specific images and messages, which emerge from extensive market research, and our goal is to reinforce those images and messages in all advertising. Our buying power also may help you get more.

Print and online advertising timeline: 3 weeks
Review and edit text for Drury style and clarity: 1 week
Select art: 1 week (concurrent with editing)
Design: 1 week
Revision and packaging for placement: 1 week

If custom photography or more substantial writing are needed, the timeline will lengthen accordingly.

Back to Top

Broadcast advertising

M&C staff can help develop scenarios and scripts for broadcast advertising and will partner with you and audio or video production companies to record, shoot or edit radio and TV advertising. Our own production capabilities are very limited. You should allow at least 8 weeks for the creation and delivery of a 30-second video.

Back to Top

Podcasts and videocasts

Convocation recordings have been available for several years as audio streams on the Drury Web site. Please visit http://www.drury.edu/convo for an archive of past and current theme year audio recordings.

Our equipment and capacity for video production are very limited. We can help you work with a video production company if necessary.

Drury-related videos are also posted at YouTube.

Back to Top

News releases

As soon as you plan or recognize an event that warrants news coverage, please alert the M&C office. We prefer to notify news media at least two weeks in advance of an event. Many of our news releases are written by our student employees, with supervision by a staff member, so please respond if a student contacts you for information.

This is the basic information we need for a news release:

  • What is happening
  • Where and when
  • Who is organizing it (and who news media should contact for more information)
  • What is different, new or unusual about this event
  • How many people are involved, either as participants or in an expected audience
  • Any visual elements of the event: costume, art, dance, activity

For student performances, a list of students with their hometowns and high schools will allow us to send news releases to their hometown newspapers, a very effective way of getting news coverage.

News release timeline:

Contact M&C office: at least 4 weeks before event
Writing, revision, final approval by client: 2 weeks
News release sent: 2 weeks before event

For events with higher news value, we will also contact reporters or editors in person.

Back to Top

Media relations

Drury receives queries each day from reporters. Most often they seek an expert source on a topic they are covering that day. How we handle those queries is described below, along with some tips on how to work with journalists.

Faculty Experts

We try to introduce a reporter to a useful expert, then step out of the way. Most often, we will field a call, recommend an expert, and provide the expert's campus phone number and e-mail address (on evenings and weekends we will provide a home number if we have been given permission). We then call the expert to alert him or her to expect the reporter's call, and what the reporter is working on.

If reporters know who they want, and how to reach him or her, we encourage them to contact the expert directly.

Experts Guide

Please periodically check the online Experts Guide (http://experts.drury.edu), another resource for news media. If you need to add or update your entry, please call the M&C office at 873-7228.

What to do when you are called by news media

If you are contacted by a reporter:

  • Unless you were already alerted by us, call the M&C office to let us know you've been contacted and why
  • Feel free to consult with M&C before allowing a reporter to interview you
  • Return a reporter's calls promptly; they are most often on a same-day deadline

During an interview:

  • Get the reporter's name and whom he or she works for
  • There are no off the record conversations; even the tone of your greeting may be part of the story
  • Be cordial and try to be helpful
  • Have your facts straight
  • Don't lie
  • If you don't know how to answer a question, don't wing it. Write the question down and tell the reporter that you will call him or her back.
  • Speak clearly and concisely
  • Avoid jargon
  • Be careful with humor and innuendo
  • Do not speak when angry or emotional
  • Expect long pauses, and don't feel the need to fill the void

(adapted from Dobisky Associates)

Back to Top

The Drury Web site

The Drury Web site is perhaps the university's most visible and most-used form of communication. Drury's site is complex, totaling more than 10,000 pages of content. In the last few years, a system has evolved that combines centralized and decentralized ways to update and maintain pages. Top-level pages are maintained by the M&C office and Web Communications. Many departments have someone assigned to update page content through the web-based content management system.

If you need assistance with updating or creating new content, please contact the Web Editor.

For assistance creating online forms or other technical questions, please contact the Assistant Director of Programming.

For help with other questions, please contact Web Communications at 873-6956.

Back to Top

Social Media

Web Communications handles the primary social media on campus, although many other departments create and manage their own social media. Tips and resources for campus social media managers are available at drury.edu/social, along with a complete list of Drury's social media accounts. For questions regarding Drury-related social media, please contact the Associate Director of Web Communications.

Web Communications manages the official Drury social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, and Instagram, as well as overseeing the student blog program, Drury Unscripted.

Back to Top

Photography

Drury does not have a staff photographer. Some M&C staff have intermediate-level skill and are sometimes available for a simple portrait or event photography. Advance notice is very helpful.

Professional photography is recommended for publications. The M&C office maintains a list of local freelance photographers, and we can help schedule and coordinate a photo shoot for you. The cost of the photo shoot is usually borne by the client; if we want to add the photos to our collection we will share or cover the cost.

We also have an archive of thousands of images, and they are available for publications and the Drury website. To search the image archive, contact the M&C office at 873-7228.

Back to Top

Marketing research

To lay the groundwork for marketing plans and campaigns, M&C conducts research as part of an ongoing cycle. We also rely on research from outside firms, such as Art and Science, to help us craft effective messages and communications. If you are interested in specific questions, please visit with the M&C office; we can help design a survey, or integrate emerging issues into our research cycle. If you are planning a class project or study that evaluates Drury, please let us know so we can share in the results.

Back to Top

Surveys

The M&C Office prepares surveys from Princeton Review, College Board, Barrons, U.S. News & World Report, etc., with Drury's statistical information. Filling out these surveys is a crucial part of determining rankings. This statistical information also acknowledges Drury's academic and other strengths.

Back to Top