Spring 2017

Vernon’s Department of Economic Development asked ATION to overhaul its existing marketing strategy. Their strategy included an underdeveloped Twitter account, various brochures for economic development, and an outdated web page on vernon-ct.gov.

Our first meeting with Shaun Gately, the department head, involved a debriefing and an outline of the creative process for the months to come. We gathered our thoughts, constructed an objective and persona, brainstormed creative tactics, and reconvened a couple weeks later.

Our approach was 2-fold. We would create a video for targeting small businesses via social media and TV and a website to direct businesses toward contacting the head of Economic Development.

We pitched this to Shaun Gately, the department head, accompanied by detailed storyboards and mockups. Now it was time to get down to work!

For the video footage we borrowed a drone from a fellow ATION student and flew it all around Vernon. We also rented photography equipment from the Digital Media department to conduct interviews of several small businesses in Vernon. Then in post-production we picked the best clips, did some audio and color correction, added motion graphics, and presented that as a rough cut to the client!
For the single-page website, the process was straightforward. The website was made to look identical to the mockup, and we attached it to a simple content management tool on prismic.io so that our client could easily update anything on his site with a few clicks.

Spring 2017

A team of students spent the second consecutive semester working on a brand new website for Pack Leaders of Connecticut, a non-profit animal rescue based in Manchester. The team’s work included logo design, website design, creation of new photo and video assets, and more. The new website incorporates online fundraising, as well as automated services for volunteers and potential animal adopters to get in touch with the rescue. The new site is now live and in use by the client. The site can be found at packleadersrescue.com.

This semester was the second semester this specific group of Digital Media students had the opportunity to work with International Studies Association(ISA). Last semester our main goals were to produce video content from footage captured at the 2016 ISA conference and prepare for our trip to the 2017 ISA conference in Baltimore, Maryland. This semester we continued our conference preparations, and on February 21st we departed on our trip. While in Baltimore we filmed interviews of the attendees to capture their experiences of the conference and their fields of study, plenty of b-roll, and recorded audio of the Sapphire Series, a panel of featured scholars and practitioners discussing current world events.

After returning from the conference, we spent the rest of the semester editing together videos from the footage we recorded in Baltimore. Some of those videos included short interviews featuring individual attendees, a general conference recap, a montage of attendees saying “We are ISA,” and a behind the scenes video of our team working.

The ISA team also requested we complete a handful of smaller tasks including creating a couple second long intro video of their Sapphire Series audio recordings, and touching up some projects from last semester as well.

We packaged these deliverables for our client on the hard drive they provided us and presented our work in our final presentation with them at the end of this semester.

Fall 2017

The International Studies Association (ISA), an internationally diverse and close knit community of intellectuals dedicated to facilitating global networks, introduced their Fall 2017 team to the world of marketing strategies and the importance of tailoring content to one’s target market. ISA specifically tasked ATION with fine-tuning their marketing strategy to attract more advertisers, exhibitors, and sponsors for their annual convention since their current tactics of sending emails, calling, and having an area on their website were falling short. Essentially, they needed the creative energy behind ATION to help ideate a new marketing strategy.

As a team compiled of four 3D/2D motion graphic concentration members and two web development and interaction design members, having a marketing strategy related project was, admittedly, testing our strengths as digital media and design agents. We decided to split our team into two departments to help complete the number of assets we had to develop by the deadline afforded to us. The print content team was comprised of Emily Ruffell, Estelle MacDonald, Peter Braunstein, and Shanna Surena-Mattson. This department worked on two of our main deliverables and created additional value content for the client. Nini Constable and Danial Hamzah led the video content team and produced two additional assets our client wanted.

The print content team worked on creating a physical pamphlet for ISA’s convention advertisers, exhibitors, and sponsors along with a comprehensive print/digital PDF that featured an overview on the three different types of partnerships ISA offers for their annual convention. Emily and Peter developed the overall design and layout of the pamphlet and gathered the content that would be featured inside of it. Shanna took on the overall work for the PDF and created the layout, content, and design herself. Both the pamphlet and PDF follow a similar color scheme and content throughout to keep the two assets cohesive in design. Estelle acted as the team’s researcher and provided additional content and information regarding ISA’s target market. She also created a mockup email campaign that ISA can use to garner excitement and attention from potential partners for the convention. Similar to Estelle, Peter created additional branded assets which included a potential logo and flat design concept for the website.

The video content team created two assets for the client. Nini developed a marketing video from past footage that other ATION members filmed from prior ISA conventions. She ended up creating two different versions of the video– one that is two minutes and one that is eight minutes— highlighting the convention’s opportunities, benefits, and popularity. It essentially acts as a visual companion piece to be used with the pamphlet. Danial tackled ISA’s request for the creation of a video that highlights their post-doctoral fellowship. Danial was able to edit the interview seamlessly with the presentation he filmed into a four-minute version and a complete 41 minute video option for the client.

Project Team
Peter Braunstein
Nini Constable
Danial Hamzah
Estelle MacDonald
Emily Ruffell
Shanna Surena-Mattson

Spring 2017

Throughout this semester we have conducted research and created final assets to enhance BeachParking.com’s marketing. In January, we completed a thorough SWOT analysis, looked at our potential competition, and identified the target market for our client (typically females age 24-56/ mothers). It was determined that BeachParking.com’s main goal was to spread more brand awareness through marketing on different channels as well as producing an explainer video to let consumers know exactly what our client’s company does. We initially ideated that in terms of our brand, potential different channels of advertising could include radio, Pandora, Facebook, and of course, the explainer video for social media channels.

Fall 2016

Diameter Health was founded with a goal of transforming healthcare through Diameter Health 3 clinical intelligence by developing software leveraging clinical analytics to normalize and understand the wealth of data in Electronic Health Records (EHRs). DH offers a range of solutions that fit the needs of their target market such as assessing patient risk, integrating information across practices and optimizing resource utilization through the use of data.

Fall 2016

The UConn Entrepreneurship and Innovation Consortium is an interdepartmental initiative between various groups at UConn. They deliver entrepreneurial training and venture development services to the UConn community.

The Consortium came to ATION because they wanted to promote their mission and brand. The group wanted to create a collaborative environment for UConn students by generating excitement about entrepreneurship.

We at developed a short film that engages and motivates students about entrepreneurship. It showed how anyone can bring an idea to life at UConn with the aid of the Consortium and the incredible amount of other resources that are available to students.

We used an innovative film making technique to to compliment the innovative nature of the Consortium and their goals. ATION had a wide range of cutting edge resources available to produce this video quickly. Overall, this film was a fantastic technical challenge that should serve as a reminder that here at ATION, we are equipped to create.