Students have noticed that some cosmetic changes have occurred on campus while they were away for the summer. The majority of the changes have been made by the Eastern marketing team.
For one, the previous “Wake up the World” banners that hung off of lamp posts are now displaying variations of “Courage.” Filling in the statement “courage to…” Eastern has branched into a new campaign to attract students.
There are also new areas to study or to gather with friends by Sparrowk and by the waterwheel. In addition, Eastern released a commercial over the summer as well as many videos under the series “Chalk and Table.” Possibly of more note, football players from the Philadelphia Eagles, Carson Wentz and Trey Burton, are coming to speak on Eastern’s campus. One change has certainly affected these alterations. This change is the position of Chief Marketing Officer recently being filled by Michael Thomas. Thomas works closely with Lisa Woods, Eastern’s Video Production Specialist. Thomas believes that the changes being made to Eastern will further enhance our relationship with the school’s motto:“Faith., Reason. Justice.”
Thomas points out, “Eastern is Faith, Reason, and Justice. That’s what makes Eastern unique. ‘Wake up the World’ was presented, initially, as a brand-shift, instead of something time-limited. So the way I view the ‘Courage’ campaign is as a way to highlight different areas within Faith, Reason, and Justice. ‘Courage’ is a campaign that works back to our brand. So you’ll see on the banners courage to pray, courage to worship, courage to believe, courage to advocate, to stand up, discover, wonder. We wanted to find words that connected with Faith, Reason, and Justice while at the same time being something that, when people come around here, they can connect with some more. Maybe someone will see a banner while they’re walking around campus and feel like they connect to it; that that’s how they’re fitting the faith, reason, and justice pieces in their own world. Marketing is just connecting with other people. We want to connect with souls and hearts in a way that makes them feel something. Rather than just throw around an idea that is cognitive, this becomes connected at a gut-level. Courage is a real-life word. And in our world right now everything is, in some ways, kind of messed up, and courage to stand up is one [word] that’s important now. Courage is developmental in a person; it is between knowledge, wisdom, self-awareness, and action.”
Woods states that Thomas has brought forth ideas to add a lot of video to Eastern’s marketing as well, which has lended itself to reaching deeper into understanding people. The commercial that was released recently is one among many that were created with the underlying message of courage, all used to tell a specific Eastern student’s story.
Thomas believes that deciding to work with the future of Eastern in mind, the school will continue to grow and become better each year.
“My thought is this: If we devote a small amount of what we can to do something like this every year, imagine where we’ll be in five years. We’ll have 10 new iconic additions to our campus. The concept for the stone area by the waterwheel started four weeks ago. I got approval within an hour. The reason it was able to be executed so fast was the grounds team here. They’re hard workers, even in one of their busiest times of the year,” Thomas added.
In addition to cosmetic changes on Eastern’s physical campus, the marketing department has been working to put up ads throughout the area, including the nearby city of Philadelphia.
“Our ‘Courage’ page, eastern.edu/courage, is devoted to showcasing the different stories of courage we’ve used so far. They’re on the ELC building, but we also have billboards out, so if you’re driving around the Philadelphia area, or taking the Septa silverliner trains, you will see Eastern students there, representing courage. There are so many stories to tell here. That’s what’s neat about ‘Courage’ is that you could take anyone’s story, and there will be courage in it somewhere” said Woods.
Eastern is off to an exciting start this year, and the marketing team is to thank for a lot of the changes. Suggestions and ideas are encouraged to be sent to Michael Thomas for further additions to our campus.
Grace Nealy 
Jason Karch 
Josh Steen