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2025 EWU Holiday Video: Teamwork

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To watch the 2025 #EWU Holiday Video, tap here.

The thing about creating something that is memorable and well-received is the pressure to replicate it. After our 2024 holiday video was released, it didn’t take long before the EWU community was asking, “How do you plan to top that?”

It was a question that packed plenty of stress. How could we surpass a highly-viewed video that was lauded for its creativity, student-involvement, and on-brand messaging?

My answer for rivaling last year’s video was simple: Let my team shine.

Thinking about how we would top the 2024 holiday video had me grabbing my head like the student in the middle (source: 2024 EWU holiday video thumbnail)

An Idea Is Born

In 2024, we had a direction. Our holiday video needed to reflect our newly-launched brand positioning (“The Region’s Polytechnic”). In 2025, the directive was more wide open. Because of this freedom, I decided to hold a pitch session.

The 2025 holiday video odyssey started in September. I summoned a small team to our meeting room. We went around the table and we each pitched two ideas. We listened as each person presented and then asked questions. The meeting went well-beyond its allotted hour but by the time we left the room, we had eight possible directions for the video.

Our 2025 EWU holiday video crew consisted of Amy Bradberry (social media manager), Luke Kenneally (multimedia specialist), Ginny Baxter (digital marketing supervisor), Swoop (mascot…but not a crew member), and me.

The Future Is Bright

Eric Limburg, our associate vice president of University Relations, took our ideas to EWU President Shari McMahan. She chose her two favorites and told our team to develop them more. Our crew returned to the meeting room and fleshed out each idea with a full script. Eric then took the built-out concepts to President McMahan for a final decision.

You can probably imagine that the four of us waited with great anticipation for President McMahan’s choice. When Eric relayed her decision to us, we were excited and ready to get to work. Our president selected a concept titled “The Future is Bright.” Originally pitched by our social media manager, Amy Bradberry, the script detailed a quest by Swoop to create an ornament using inspiration and collaboration from all four EWU academic colleges.

After a pretty intense process to identify a theme for our holiday video, President Shari McMahan chose an idea pitched by Amy Bradberry called “The Future Is Bright.”

Refinement

Reflecting on the evolution of the idea is fascinating. Over the course of different script workshops, we refined the story and made some significant changes. For example, the ornament changed to a tree topper, the opening scene changed locations from the Eagle Store to the Arevalo Student Mall, and the assembly morphed from the foundry to the robotics lab—just to name a few.

We also added enhancements that we originally didn’t specify in the script. Fun extras like a map overlay to show Swoop’s campus movements, the incorporation of CGI, and even some Easter eggs were added in the hope of keeping viewers engaged.

But even with those changes, the overall theme pitched by Amy stayed true to its original intent of Swoop uniting the colleges to create some seriously BRIGHT holiday cheer. With the script bolstered and the theme intact, it was time to throw caution to the wind and actually film this son of a nutcracker…

The filming of the holiday video would have our crew doing a lot of running around. Ginny Baxter and I carry the all-important tree with Amy Bradberry walking behind to pick up any ornaments that might fall off (photo courtesy of EWU/Luke Kenneally).

Lights! Camera! Action!

Filming took place over two days in mid-November. After checking the weather each day starting two weeks out, our fears of rain went unfounded. We had calm conditions for both days, a relief for our entire production team—including Josue Schneegans and Tony Thompson from Dryland Media. We brought on Josue and Tony midway through script development for their creative assistance with bringing our idea to life.

As a producer, you can only hope the work you put forth prior to shoot day pays off once the filming begins. Although we had a chaotic moment or two, filming for the most part went very smoothly. However, that isn’t as much to my credit as it is to EWU and the professionalism of Josue—but more on that in just a bit.

We filmed at seven different locations over the course of the two days. The first day wrapped after 8 p.m. but it was well worth it. We needed the darkness to film the final scene when Swoop revealed the illuminated tree topper to President McMahan and the 20+ students who volunteered to make cameos. In exchange for the positive vibes brought by the students, we reciprocated by serving them plenty of hot coco and cookies to maintain their high energy levels.  What a great way to end the day!

Josue Schneegans gives direction to President McMahan during the filming of the final scene that we shot on Wednesday, Nov. 12. It may have been late but this part of the shoot was a lot of fun as the students brought a lot of energy. (photo courtesy of EWU/Luke Kenneally).

The Talent

As evidenced by my description of the final scene, we had many people appear in front of the camera. However, the participation just didn’t extend to that one scene but rather the entire video. We were fortunate to have many students volunteer their time by representing their academic college in the scenes where Swoop picked up tree topper items.

President McMahan once again delivered a strong performance. She was a good sport and devoted an entire Wednesday evening to hanging out with our crew. Even with multiple takes and the chilly temperatures she was nothing but supportive and helpful. As always, she was in her complete element surrounded by the students.

But the true MVP of the video was Swoop. It is a big request to ask an intercollegiate mascot to be available for two hours—we asked Swoop to be available for TWO DAYS. That is a lot of time to be in the suit, especially for something as demanding as a video shoot. But no matter what we asked Swoop to do or how many times we asked him to do it, he always gave 100%. Swoop was professional and coachable from the beginning to the end.

I have so much gratitude and respect for the role Swoop played for us (photo courtesy of EWU/Luke Kenneally).

Post-Production/Launch

The collaboration continued after the filming ended. With each draft we inched closer and closer to where we needed to be. Nothing was more exciting than when the CGI was added that revealed the tree topper in its full glory. At that point, I simply couldn’t wait until the release date.

That day came yesterday. After more than two months of planning and collaborating, my team executed our distribution strategy and launched the 2025 EWU Holiday Video. As the positive feedback rolled in, I visited Amy, Luke, and Ginny in their offices to congratulate them and thank them for their commitment to the project.

Senior graphic designer Emily Ausere designed the YouTube thumbnail. If that isn’t clickbait I don’t know what is…

Gratitude

Speaking of thanks, any higher ed marketing director will tell you that gratitude is abundant with any successful holiday video. As I mentioned earlier, everyone at EWU was so accommodating. From faculty members providing students/classroom space to Dining Services catering meals to Facilities graciously halting their leaf blowers during outdoor scenes, my team was given every opportunity to succeed. Special thanks to the President’s Office for their support and to our Risk Management team for allowing us to do things I wasn’t sure they would.

Much appreciation also to Dryland Media. We have worked with those guys before and they always keep us sane with their talent and humor. On the first day we found ourselves in a couple tight spots and Josue, who directed the video, was so professional and quick on his feet. They did all they could to help us achieve our vision.

And last, but certainly not least, BIG thanks to our own department—University Relations. This year, I offered shifts during each scene of the video for our marketing and communications staffers to hang out on set and assist. We had nearly full participation as everyone contributed in unique ways. Special thanks to Eric Limburg for his support and guidance throughout the project and to Emily Ausere, our senior graphic designer, who is an honorary member of our crew. Emily created the YouTube/social media thumbnails, designed external pieces that promoted the video, drew the picture that Swoop references on-screen, and assisted during the actual shoot.

Ginny Baxter, Emily Ausere, and student intern Aaron Weer working behind the scenes of the 2025 EWU holiday video. It was a lot of fun to have so many of our University Relations staffers assist on the shoot days. In this photo, Emily is actually drawing the picture that Swoop holds up throughout the video (photo courtesy of EWU/Luke Kenneally).

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After all those notes of gratitude, I hope to not appall you with one more “thank you” but here it goes: Ginny Baxter, Amy Bradberry, and Luke Kenneally…what a pleasure it was! Thanks for the creativity and positivity you brought to this entire process. As I noted earlier, watching an idea come to fruition that evolved greatly but still maintained its initial integrity was the most rewarding of all.

The future truly is bright…because I don’t have to worry about another holiday video for at least 9.5 more months. Don’t Blink.

2024 EWU Holiday Video: Leveraging The Brand

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To watch the 2024 #EWU Holiday Video, tap here.

A Higher Ed Phenomenon

If you work in the marketing and communications side of higher education, it is inevitable: you will eventually help out with a holiday video. For years, colleges and universities have flexed their creative muscles to make unique and memorable productions that put their audiences in a festive spirit.

In my higher ed career, I have worked on many such videos for various institutions. Each one has been different. From celebratory to sentimental to audience choice to trendy, I have played roles in holiday videos that run the gamut when it comes to theme.

This year, I had the privilege of working on a holiday video that boasted a completely original/innovative approach while overseeing a large role in its production.

As I mentioned above, there are many different angles that higher ed institutions take with holiday videos. Usually, they aim to either make their audience laugh, cry, or feel inspired. Parodies, sing-a-longs, annual recaps, and presidential voice-overs are some of the common forms these videos take to elicit the desired reaction/emotion.

This is the story of how we leveraged our brand positioning through a holiday video that we titled internally as “Where Have All the Acorns Gone?”

A Strategic and Unique Direction

This year at Eastern Washington University, we went a totally different direction. Instead of creating a slapstick laugh fest or a sentimental tearjerker, we opted for a more strategic option. We decided to leverage our new brand positioning.

As I wrote about in September, EWU positioned itself as the region’s polytechnic. Although it took an immense amount of work to launch, that was just the beginning. Since President Shari McMahan kicked off our brand positioning effort 2.5 months ago when she premiered our brand anthem video, we have devoted tireless efforts to establishing ourselves as Washington’s leader in applied learning through strategic marketing. But while paid digital ads, radio spots, and student recruitment posters are just some of the traditional ways we have established our positioning, we have employed savvier methods too.

President McMahan has obliviously played an immense role in our entire brand positioning effort. But she also played a crucial role in our holiday video, too. This photo shows us working with President McMahan on her opening scene.

Where Have All the Acorns Gone?

Enter our 2024 holiday video. We used this highly anticipated piece of content to drive home Eastern Washington University’s standing as the region’s polytechnic. We teamed up with our creative agency, idfive, to make something that would prominently feature our students while telling a story that exemplifies how #EWUIsPolytech.

The gist of the script is this: Set to the cadence of The Nutcracker’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” a rumor circulates around EWU that there is an acorn shortage. Since the nut is a distinguishing feature of our campus, students from different academic backgrounds try to reverse the scarcity. Eleven different academic programs use hands-on techniques specific to their disciplines to solve the source of the shortage and return acorns to their normal abundance on campus. At the end of the video, the teamwork has paid off as a holiday celebration takes place in President McMahan’s office with a bowl of overflowing acorns.

The rumor is started when a student overhears President McMahan jokes about an acorn shortage but “can’t detect the sarcasm through the thick wooden door.”

Bringing the Vision to Life

Filming took place at the beginning of November. Our multimedia specialist Luke Kenneally handled filming, digital marketing supervisor Ginny Baxter provided incredible insight/hands-on magic as our art director, and I served as the producer. Sean Nelms from idfive joined us as the director.

It was such a satisfying experience working with these talented professionals for three (long) days. Our camaraderie was strong as we shared the same goal of creating the absolute best video possible. Over the course of those three days, we worked with 30+ student cast members as we crisscrossed the Cheney campus and filmed additional scenes in Spokane’s Catalyst and SIERR buildings. We also seized the opportunity to collaborate closely with President McMahan as she played crucial on-screen parts at the beginning and end of the video.

A celebratory photo of our crew after filming wrapped on November 6 (L-R: Luke Kenneally, Sean Nelms, Me, Ginny Baxter).

The Big Debut

Late last week, we debuted the 2024 EWU holiday video. My colleagues in higher ed know that there is much anxiety prior to such a release. No matter how hard a central marketing and communications office plans/works on a project like this, there is always the chance for biting criticism and mockery. After all, holiday videos are typically ultra-creative pieces and an out-of-the-box output doesn’t always resonate with all. In our case, would a holiday piece built upon a brand positioning strategy that was seen by some as controversial drive any of our loyal Eagles away?

Thankfully, my natural marketing director pessimistic concerns were unfounded. To this date, I have not seen a single negative comment on our digital channels nor heard sarcastic/WTF feedback from my internal EWU network. The roll out went smoothly and as of Monday evening, the video has garnered 30,000 views across our platforms.

Our EWU holiday video received an overwhelmingly positive response on social media and has already garnered more than 30,000 views across platforms.

Outcomes and Gratitude

The best outcome of all is that the positive reaction to the holiday video is in turn continued positive support for our brand evolution as the region’s polytechnic. People are embracing our applied learning platform and the reception of this major production proved to be a positive referendum on it. Our strategy worked.

Teamwork is imperative to produce a successful holiday video. To that end, I am grateful to so many. Our President’s Office was incredible. They helped with logistical support, allowed us to set up early in their offices, and provided full access to the star of the video—President McMahan. Idfive brought loads of creativity throughout the entire process and served as the perfect partner. The faculty, staff, and students I coordinated with from the academic departments were eager to help and so accommodating. Eric Limburg, our associate vice president for University Relations, guided the project with superb leadership. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my team members who stopped everything to devote three days to the shoot. Ginny Baxter and Luke Kenneally showed up each day with the best mix of positivity and motivation while Shelley Stickelmeyer worked behind the scenes to make sure our crew was taken care of and props were ordered.

When we finally settled on the script, it was rather daunting. There were just so many moving pieces and logistics. But with the commitment of so many at EWU, we pulled it off. As the video confidently and accurately states, there’s nothing on earth that can stop this polytechnic. Don’t Blink.

Feeling On-Brand At EWU

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Fitting In

I definitely feel like an Eagle now. A major project championed by our University Relations Department flew into market last week. Its reveal proved a perfect way to mark my two-month anniversary at Eastern Washington University.

Last Tuesday, we officially launched EWU’s evolved brand positioning as the region’s polytechnic. Our university is owning our time-honored commitment to applied learning while continuing to invest in additional opportunities for all students across all disciplines to engage in hands-on experiences. By allowing students to do their craft while at EWU, we equip them for more opportunities once they enter the workforce. After all, there is a reason why 75% of our graduates find jobs related to their major.

We launched EWU’s evolved brand positioning last week. We are now the region’s polytechnic.

Hey, I Know About This

I had a really interesting perspective with the development of the evolved brand when I started at EWU. While still at WSU—where we were coincidentally working on debuting a major branding campaign ourselves—it was made public that EWU would embrace the positioning of the region’s polytechnic. Although it was months away from launch, the future of brand marketing at Eastern Washington University was now revealed. From this outside-looking-in vantage point, I paid close attention as the institution provided updates on the work, faculty offered feedback, and the media covered the developments/debate closely.

Yes, there was some controversy about the branding direction EWU was headed. However, it didn’t faze me.

You see, I was well aware of the shift to the region’s polytechnic long before I even applied to EWU. To be honest, I saw promise with the positioning. I firmly believe that the key to successful branding is differentiation. Often, I bring up the example of attending a higher ed marketing conference where a slide was shown with brand tag lines on one side and university logos on the other. The presenter asked if we could draw lines from each marketing tag line to the respective college it belonged to. It was just about impossible. All the tag lines were so generic (i.e. “Driven to Discover,”Here is How,” Creating Bold Futures,” etc.) that you couldn’t differentiate which mantra belonged to which university.

EWU wasn’t going to have an identity issue at all with the region’s polytechnic. At the same time, it wasn’t going to be easy. In addition to the massive amount of work required for any brand evolution, the push back element was  very real.

And here is the actual slide I referenced in the previous paragraph. I couldn’t help but take a photo of it during the 2023 AMA Symposium for Higher Ed.

Joining the Effort

And that’s where I came in. Launching any type of brand is a marathon and I entered the race toward the home stretch. It takes a lot of time to successfully introduce any type of branding campaign—usually at least a year. Research, discovery, platform development, expression, and launch are just some of the major components. With my hire date roughly two months before launch, I entered the picture as we were finalizing our brand platform and building assets.

Basically, I jumped on the band wagon once all the hard work was already completed 😂.

To be fair, the home stretch was grueling and there were still plenty of challenges to navigate. However, the major effort put forth by those on the University Relations team and others across the university prior to me setting foot on campus was significant. I was impressed with what everyone had done.

I was also very humbled by how gracious my team treated me. My UR colleagues truly knew how to make me feel part of the brand squad, even if it could have seemed like the new guy was swooping in at the last minute to snatch glory for himself. My boss and co-workers provided me with in-depth context, valued my opinion, and tolerated my many questions.

Assisting Where I Could

They also allowed me to contribute. Providing input at strategy meetings, participating in calls with our marketing consultants (shout out to idfive!), approving brand assets/resources, and LISTENING were all ways I got my feet wet with the brand evolution.

As the days passed and crunch time drew near, I became very invested in our brand evolution and felt genuine camaraderie with my EWU team. I had the opportunity to build our paid media plan for the brand’s roll out, write brand-related content for the web, develop the SEM strategy, and deal with launch logistics. Again, small contributions compared to what my team had already done—and continued to do—but exciting nonetheless.

Our evolved brand positioning officially launched on Sept. 24, 2024.

Let’s Launch!

The official launch came on Sept. 24 during Convocation, a start-of-the-academic-year event where the EWU president addresses faculty and staff. Toward the end of the program, President McMahan talked about Eastern’s new positioning and then premiered the two-minute brand anthem video. The centerpiece of the brand evolution roll out, our team exerted a lot of effort to perfect it. The video was met with resounding applause and at that moment we went live with our paid and organic plans. We were finally in market.

Although executing the launch took a big weight off our shoulders, the crucial work is now just beginning. Incorporating, explaining, supporting, and feeding EWU’s new positioning is something that our University Relations team and the rest of the institution will focus on each day moving forward.

A successful branding initiative requires differentiation and I think we nailed it. I am proud of my team for their tireless work and grateful that they allowed me to be part of the effort

Set For Success

I believe in the unique way that we are now presenting Eastern Washington University. Positioning ourselves as the region’s polytechnic will deliver us more attention from prospective students and their parents who are looking for colleges that offer hands-on learning and real-life experiences. Even though we aren’t changing who we are, just boldly stating who we are, I think our fresh approach is going to make EWU standout in a very crowded and competitive market.

Once again, much gratitude to my team members who worked so hard on this brand positioning and welcomed me with open arms. Working with Eric Limburg, Ginny Baxter, Amy Bradberry, Melodie Little, and so many others down the stretch was a rewarding experience. But in the end, a change of brand positioning goes way beyond just marketing. I recognize everyone else at EWU who helped us become the region’s polytechnic through their vision, research, planning, support, and time. Cheers to forward-thinking. Don’t Blink.