How Do We Start Building A Culture?
Background
St. Joseph’s University – Long Island, is a NCAA Division III school with over 15 varsity sports. St. Joseph’s University is the only commuter school in the east coast.
Student-athletes didn’t feel connected with athletics with many of them not attending sporting events on campus. The Golden Eagles faced a unique challenge: without the traditional campus-life experience, the typical NCAA team culture wasn’t fully present. There was little pride, camaraderie, or low energy that really didn’t represent a connected athletic community.
My Role
- Developed the concept and the timeline on how we planned on releasing the series
- Led the team responsible for video
- Directed and produced the video
The Opportunity
I saw an opportunity to start creating a culture and try to show the culture inside the athletic department. I knew that inside the department we were all joyful and we knew the vision that we wanted to help bring a culture to St. Joseph’s University.
The Concept
When trying to create content to better show student-athletes and future college recruits our spirit, I sat down to think about sports nostalgia. That’s when I thought about making short videos inspired by the iconic “This Is SportsCenter” commercials, I developed and directed a campaign called “This Is St. Joseph’s.”
It was a lighthearted 45 second segments that showed coaches, staff, interacting with each other in funny, relatable, and totally on-brand ways — right in the middle of campus life.
The goal was twofold:
Externally: Position SJC Athletics as fun, tight-knit, and proudly competitive — with a distinct personality
Internally: Build community and pride among athletes, coaches, and staff
More Videos
The student-athletes loved the idea of the commercials and wanted to be involved. We were able to include them in two more videos.
Additionally, there was a student-athlete who was a student-worker within the department who always hung around the student center and everyone knew him. He was graduating this year, so we did a little skit with him included.
