Author: Greg Ash

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Come Here to Go Far

What does it mean to make a difference? Well at DU they are certainly trying to define it. They have reestablished a focus on a 4D experience which takes the normal student education and sprinkles in some out of the classroom experiential learning at the James C. Kennedy Mountain campus at the University of Denver. All students immerse themselves in the holistic approach to education that sets DU apart: the 4D Experience. The four integrated dimensions—advancing intellectual growth, exploring character, promoting well-being and pursuing lives and careers of purpose—will guide every program and activity on the mountain campus, just as they do on the urban campus.

 

The Kennedy Mountain Campus is for the entire DU community, and all students—from those studying music to those exploring the sciences—have an opportunity to engage with this space throughout their time at DU. Here, there is something for every learner to expand upon and apply to their studies on DU’s urban campus. Thanks to the generosity of donors and supporters, these experiences are available with no additional financial burden to DU’s students or their families.

 

 

With the creation of the Kennedy Mountain Campus, DU is the only university to integrate both an urban and a mountain campus, offering the opportunity for every student to grow in multiple dimensions in order to lead lives of purpose, for themselves and for the greater good.

What better way to bring that to life than to rethink the standard PSA with a message of its own.

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Experiences You Have to See to Believe

The University of Denver was ready to announce an exciting new expansion—The James C. Kennedy Mountain Campus, 724 acres of abounding natural forest north of their urban campus. The Kennedy Mountain Campus would become an essential aspect of DU’s strategic initiative, the 4D Experience, helping to enhance values found at the core of student life. This expanse would serve as a space where DU could continue to invest in holistic learning, teach students to lead purposeful lives, and illustrate the importance of wellness. But with this new campus came the need to develop strategic messaging that would help DU define its value.

Integration became the most significant consideration in developing a concept for DU. Messaging for the Kennedy Mountain Campus needed to drum up interest and excitement while at the same time match DU’s existing brand and voice. We wanted to present both the mountain and urban campuses as equal counterparts—two vastly different spaces working in harmony to contribute to the same student experience.

What better way to bring it to life than seeing it for yourself. We collaborated with DU to do just that. An experience brought to life through the eyes of those seeing the benefits first hand.

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Time to Tackle Gun Violence

The spate of shooting attacks in communities such as Highland Park, IL, Uvalde, TX and Buffalo, NY, has riveted attention on America’s staggering number of public mass killings. But according to federal data, the rising number of gun deaths in the United States extends beyond such high-profile episodes, emerging nearly every day inside homes, outside bars and on the streets of many cities. So far, in 2022 alone, there have been over 300 mass shootings.

The surge in gun violence comes as firearm purchases rose to record levels in 2020 and 2021, with more than 43 million guns estimated to have been purchased during that period. At the same time, the rate of gun deaths hit the highest level since 1995, with more than 45,000 fatalities each year.

Over the long Fourth of July weekend, as seven people were killed and dozens wounded at a parade in Highland Park, numerous other fatal shootings played out across the country. In nearby Chicago, ten people were killed and more than 60 wounded in a string of shootings. One person was killed, and four were wounded in a shooting outside a Sacramento nightclub. Two people were killed at a home in Haltom City, TX, while injuring a neighbor and three police officers. And in Clinton, NC, a man was fatally shot and then hours later, six people, including two children, were injured in a separate shooting.

With an estimated 400 million guns in the country, a figure that eclipses the U.S. population, “there is a self-fulfilling prophecy of, ‘I need a gun because everyone else around me has a gun,’” said Sasha Cotton, director of the Minneapolis Office of Violence Prevention.

The agonizing frequency of nonfatal shootings and firearm deaths, experts said, has become a uniquely American phenomenon.

“Many other countries have disadvantaged folks who are angry and alienated,” said Richard Berk, a professor emeritus of criminology and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania. “But guns aren’t there.”

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David vs World Hunger

828 Million. That’s the number of people from across the world that go to bed hungry every night. The number of those facing acute food insecurity has soared – from 135 million to 345 million – since 2019. And a total of 50 million people in 45 countries are teetering on the edge of famine, a crisis that can be attributed to a deadly combination of four factors:

 

  1. 60 percent of the world’s hungry live in areas afflicted by war and violence. Events unfolding in Ukraine are further proof of how conflict feeds hunger, forcing people out of their homes and wiping out their sources of income.
  2. Climate shocks destroy lives, crops and livelihoods and undermine people’s ability to feed themselves.
  3. The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are driving hunger to unprecedented levels.
  4. Costs are also at an all-time high: WFP’s monthly operating costs are US$73.6 million above their 2019 average – a staggering 44 percent rise. The extra now spent on operating costs would have previously fed 4 million people for one

Last week, our team had the opportunity to partner with Philadelphia-based philanthropists to take on world hunger in real-time. With only four days to turn this project around, we rallied behind this message in a way only Philly can. This “Rocky Versus the World” style animation stares world hunger down and reminds us that this is an issue we won’t back away from until it’s squashed.

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How to Complement Your Content

Built from a collaboration between the city of Cincinnati, the University of Cincinnati, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the Cincinnati Innovation District is a new, revolutionary STEM model designed to solve today’s most significant scientific challenges by nurturing a solid ecosystem of STEM-related researchers, students, and companies.

 

This dynamic partnership situates Cincinnati as an international STEM research and development hub while helping solve an industry-wide talent shortage.

 

We began building content through a series of interviews held with essential stakeholders. The investors, students, Fortune 500’s and startups, professors and politicians all express their own innovation and impact experiences. From this portfolio of content, we were poised to develop any story we needed to tell, targeting as specific an audience as necessary.

In order to complement this suite of documentary-style films, we developed an edit that captured many-layered narratives as efficiently as possible. This way, we knew we would catch the attention of new viewers through emotional storytelling and genuine connection.