Fall Capstone Promotes CUNY Arts

12/31/2019 Unknown 0 Comments



After studying the impact of gun violence for last Fall's non-profit client Sandy Hook Promise, BICsters spent Fall 2019 exploring the art scene in New York City on behalf of this year's non-profit client CUNY Arts. With the guidance of Professor Katina Scott and Creative Director Brianna Bishop, BICsters in the Class of 2020 leveraged the abundant cultural offerings here in the arts capital of the world to elevate the low brand awareness of this CUNY initiative which offers student passes to places such as MoMA and the Whitney, internships at arts organizations, and curricular development to CUNY faculty to insure that arts education is woven into classroom programming.
Divided into four teams modeled after interdisciplinary agencies, BICsters from each track utilized a cross-disciplinary approach to create distinctive integrated marketing communications campaigns based on a client briefing delivered by Nyisha Howell, Hugo Fernandez, and Fatima Hernandez of CUNY Arts back on September 12th. They returned as judges three months later for the Client Pitch on Thursday, December 12th.

Team MUV kicked off the Client Pitch with its campaign, "Engage the Whole You." Based on original consumer research, MUV found that current CUNY students are the most anxiety-ridden generation. MUV's campaign demonstrated that engaging with the arts enhances your wellbeing and is why CUNY students should invest in self-caring through CUNY Arts.



Team Uno's campaign, "Future Within Reach," directly aligned with CUNY Arts' mission to promote its Cultural Corps which connects students with career opportunities in the arts. Uno's goal of altering student attitudes to make art more relatable derived from the team's insight-driven message: CUNY Arts opens doors for CUNY students.
Team Common Ground's research revealed that CUNY students go through years of school without taking advantage of CUNY Arts' offerings. In its integrated communications campaign, "Not All Perks are Created Equal," Common Ground reminded its audience why access to the New York art scene is a CUNY student's most valuable perk of all.



Team Thumbprint's campaign was driven by a galvanizing insight: New York City may be the cultural capital of the world attracting millions of global art lovers each year, but to a New Yorker, all the city's art offerings are local. So regardless of what borough you're from -- or even if you're not a born and bred New Yorker -- once you're a CUNY student, your relationship to the arts is more personal, more immediate, and a part of the local scene. This gives CUNY an authentic position of authority that Thumbprint leveraged in its campaign, "Our local is unlike any other." The team repositioned CUNY Arts from a provider of free access at museums to being curators of New York culture.




Each team pitched their unique approach in consecutive 30-minute presentations to the CUNY Arts client. After deliberating for nearly an hour, they declared Thumbprint the pitch winner with its "CUNY Arts Local" campaign which empowers CUNY Arts to transform the entire CUNY brand as deeply connected to arts here in the culture capital of the world in a uniquely authentic and authoritative way.

Past non-profit capstone clients have been Sandy Hook Promise, The Grove School of Engineering, Columbia Children’s Health, The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, and the UJA.