Marquette’s Office of Marketing and Communication receives four Best of District V awards from CASE

Marquette’s photography strategy is designed for audiences across digital and print platforms, and the goal is to move beyond documentation to creative interpretation. Each submitted portrait was representative of OMC’s approach to present images as a complete composition to complement the story. The photographers paid deliberate attention to lighting, color, composition and framing to reinforce the subject’s story rather than distract from it. Lighting is used not simply to illuminate, but to establish mood and context. Color choices are similarly intentional, functioning as narrative tools that subtly guide tone and meaning. Together, these elements create portraits that feel cohesive and thoughtful.

Value of a Marquette Education
Category: Communications > Communications Initiatives 

The “Value of a Marquette Education” campaign was designed to elevate the value of higher education, specifically the distinctive impact of a Catholic, Jesuit education at Marquette, during a period of growing public skepticism toward college. OMC executed a multi-channel, storytelling-driven strategy, developing a website that highlights Marquette’s achievements, mission, student outcomes and economic impact. This content was amplified through organic storytelling across social platforms, earned media placements, targeted paid advertising, a presidential op-ed in a major daily newspaper, and an economic impact report, ensuring consistent messaging across local and national touchpoints. A cohesive visual identity and narrative framework tied together graphics, long-form stories, video and print materials.

Internal surveys indicate Marquette alumni love hearing about physical changes to campus, and thanks to record-setting philanthropy over the past decade, there has been a string of stories about new and impressively renovated buildings for them to enjoy. Led by a cover feature in the fall 2025 issue of Marquette Magazine, the “Stay Awhile” package of print, web, video and social media storytelling paints a vivid portrait of transformative campus change, as guided by Marquette’s 2015 campus master plan. It reveals how a decade’s worth of strategic investments not only met the university’s needs for upgraded academic facilities, research labs and residential rooms, but also served needs for human connection as well. An emphasis on creating inviting spaces has reshaped how students and others gather, engage and experience Marquette. By incorporating words, images and map animations to share this story with audience members across a variety of platforms, “Stay Awhile” helped them understand and experience this transformation for themselves, and it achieved impressive audience engagement results in doing so.

“Walk the Line” was a participatory art experience inviting students to engage with the ideas explored in the “Life Lines” exhibit at the Haggerty Museum of Art on Marquette’s campus. “Life Lines,” an exhibit of abstract works centered on “line” as a unifying theme, was curated by Haggerty’s Curator for Academic Engagement in collaboration with a theology professor who integrated the exhibit into his class on Jesuit contemplative practices. Inspired by the professor’s teachings, OMC collaborated with an illustrator to create a series of original line drawings that included reflective prompts. The use of brand colors connected the artwork to the university. The drawings were printed on adhesive material and applied directly to campus sidewalks. A chalk line formed a continuous path between the drawings and the museum, linking them together. Students could “walk the line” to class, encountering sidewalk art that encouraged reflection. The sidewalk drawings were supplemented by outdoor banners, posters, a visitor workbook, and a local magazine advertisement.