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A Partnership to Brand North Florida’s Newest State College

Florida Community College at Jacksonville was the


fifth largest community college system in the country.
It served the community with great success and had
a outstanding reputation with area businesses.
Everyone knew FCCJ as a great place to start your
higher ed. journey and then transition to a four-year
university. Others would come for valuable skills-
based training for in-demand, high-paying jobs. So
why make a change? As the old adage goes “If it
isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” right?

The system was definitely not broken, however leadership at FCCJ realized that there was a
growing segment of the community that was being under served. There were many students
that either preferred not to transfer to another institution to “finish” their education or oth-
ers that felt that a “traditional university” was not the right fit for them. Thus began FCCJ’s
preparation to transition to a four-year college.

The Project - Conversion to a four-year College - The Big Picture... Realized.


A four-year college, sounded great. FCCJ already had all the infrastructure in place. They had
the physical space, they had the faculty, they even knew the demand was there. They under-
stood the final destination... but were not exactly sure how to get there.

FCCJ’s leadership understood the challenges ahead of them. With a limited timeframe and a
limited budget they need a partner for this journey. Enter Principle Creative.

The leadership team at Principle Creative met with the college and through a series of dis-
covery meetings, to clearly define the goals, timeframes and put in place a project plan that
embraced the vision of FCCJ’s leadership and managed the many facets of the conversion.

Phase 1 introduced the transition and explaned why FCCJ was making the change to a four-
year college. This message took on two faces, explaining the benefits of this new college to
the community, while putting to rest the fears current students felt about the change. We
needed to show them that everything that made FCCJ good wasn’t going to change. Having
your cake and eat it too?

In this case, yes. With a carefully crafted message and branding strategy we were able to do
just that. Phase 1 was a massive undertaking that was developed and launched in 23-weeks
and consisted of:
• Branding Strategy
• Logos and Identity
• Advertising - TV, radio, billboards and web
• 5 Web Sites (converting fccj.edu, a 20,000 page site, to 5 sites in 12 weeks)
Now that everyone understood the “why” and was feeling good about it, we had to kick it
into full gear. Phase 2 was a traditional branding and image building effort. What may have
seemed like an overwhelming challenge to some agencies quickly became an “all hands on
deck” effort to convert all marketing collateral and search advertising from the old community
college branding into the newly introduced Florida State College. One of the cornerstone
pieces (and most challenging) was the Options and Opportunities magazine that presented
each of the colleges “schools” and the programs they offered. Through this publication we
were able to present all the career-building opportunities, stories of recent graduates and
their success, and introduce the college’s new bachelor programs all while reinforcing the
new brand and benefits of the school’s transition.

With so many pieces and so much potential for confusion our biggest challenge keep both
our internal team and the colleges team organized, focused and moving forward.

“It would have been very easy to become paralyzed by the enormity of what we were trying
to accomplish,” confessed Gene Wassmer, senior leadership at Principle Creative, “But we
love challenges and truly excel under tough situations.”

We converted hundreds of search pieces and ads; viewbooks and catalogs; campus signage
and parking stickers. We converted, redesigned and rebranded everything we could get our
hands on!

Phase 2 took place over a 18-week time period, and consisted of:
• Program Brochures
• Flyers and advertisments
• Search Pieces
• Viewbooks
• Options & Opportunities, a programs overview magazine
• Direct Mail
• Corporate Services Collateral
• Student Activities Calendar
• Stationary Packages
• Athletics Programs
• Student Services Brochures
• Community Services Collateral

Great you say, you can work hard. Hard work without results is like... a great ice cream
cone splattered on the sidewalk... Did anything come from all this effort?

Absolutely. A seamless transition to a new four-year college that is meeting the needs of
the community. A strong creative partnership between Principle Creative and Florida State
College that far exceeded the college’s expectations and still continues today. With new
initiatives on the horizon like a progressive plan for social media integration and expanding
the interactive elements on their new site. A great feeling of accomplishment.

Oh, something tangible, something measurable? How’s this, enrollment grew by 17% from
Fall 2008 to Fall 2009, the year of the transition. Florida State College was able pull students
from other universities, from non-traditional schools and even pull people off their sofas and
get them back to school after being going for many years.

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