Breaking the Mould of the Old with Creativity at Work

You know the old adage,  “if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.”   It takes both imagination and some amount of courage to go where none have gone before….or at least where you have not gone before. Even if after the fact we say, “Duh, what took ya so long?!”   We (that’s the ‘royal we’) talk about learning from our mistakes and accepting responsibility for the consequences of our actions, but when risk is present that involves both ours and other peoples’ money, reputation or future circumstances, then due consideration is warranted. And, then, fore-warned and fore-armed, we take the plunge. And sometimes the unintended consequences are better than we could have foreseen! Here’s one example.

This video portrays a simple yet highly effective communication tactic and display of how a mainstream institution embraced social media to assist with their organizational advancement initiatives.  This university president used modern means of communication- namely social media- to showcase their campus and student involvement in academic and extra-curricular activities while poking serious fun at himself and his here-to-fore lofty role. This boldly engages the interest of multiple cross-sections of  so-called stake-holders- students, parents, alumni, community members, peer colleagues and  institutions- which unwittingly takes this effort to results far beyond the original objective of raising awareness about their college.  Through leveraging and recycling this content, online institutional, alumni and peer fundraising results have skyrocketed. The Return on Investment far exceeded their wildest dreams.  And, for better or worse, we may have a new star in the making – Simon Cowell and American Idol, watch out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpEcCjpbm5w