Devil’s Advocate on a Catholic Campus

September 16, 2011 • 2:27 am • POSTED BY Tammo Walter

All of our brand strategy and development projects start with a research and discovery phase. And in most cases the discovery phase leads us to the heart of the brand, its home and the place where we meet with and talk to its creators, stakeholders, influencers and consumers. A place where we question everything and go like archeologists on a thorough search for the truth (no matter what that might unearth). Some things you just can’t imagine but have to experience firsthand, especially if you want to tell others about it. And it becomes even more important if you are somewhat critical about its offerings.

When we set out for our discovery trip to the University of Notre Dame I was curious and skeptical about what we would find out and experience on campus. For a couple of reasons: 1) it is already one of the most recognized university brands in the US and therefore comes by default with a lot of preconceptions and 2) I am always careful when religion gets married with education. Given that and the nature of a discovery I kind of was the devil’s advocate on a Catholic campus.

As strange as it might sound it is not a bad position to be in when you are trying to find out how water proof a concept, philospohy or idea is. If you already bought into something you don’t listen and look as careful as you probably should. But, no risk of that in this case. And that also had a lot to do with the people we interviewed and met with. As with every journey or road trip you’d take you come across things you didn’t expect, which more often than not is what makes it memorable in the end. With universities it’s rarely the beauty of the campus or the advanced labs you might see during a campus tour (although Notre Dame’s campus is cool and the view into the stadium from the press lounge awesome).

Most often it is the stories and people you meet that embody the essence of the brand and bring it to life immediately. In the case of this trip it was definitely the meeting with 94-year-old Father Ted (Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, C.S.C.), former long-time president of the University of Notre Dame, holder of the world record for most honorary doctorate degrees (150) ever awarded to one person, the first figure in higher education to receive the Congressional Gold Medal and the highest civilian honor the Medal of Freedom, former Chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, advisor to several US Presidents and a thousand other unbelievable things. Simply put he was one of the most impressive people I ever met for as least as many reasons as he has doctorate degrees.

Especially amongst catholics he is a living legend, one that always fought for a better tomorrow and against the perception that as George Bernard Shaw (founder of the London School of Economics and Nobel Prize winner in literature) once said “a Catholic university is a contradiction in terms.” Father Ted believes “there is no conflict between science and theology except where there is bad science or bad theology.”

With everything he has been involved with, from being appointed by President Eisenhower to the Civil Rights Commission in 1957 and by President Carter to head a delegation of Americans to a global conference on science and technology for development in 1977 to going on a fact-finding tour of refugee camps around Kosovo for the United Nations in 1999 he is the living proof of his and Notre Dame’s philosophy.

Given all the skepticism I had going into this I have to admit that Father Ted was just an extraordinary icing on an amazing cake and the whole team got convinced not only by him but the whole, extremely passionate, welcoming and open-minded community we experienced during our trip. Now our big challenge was to capture everything we learned and to translate that into a Notre Dame undergraduate brand that can convey its story to a variety of different audiences in the most engaging and truthful way. Communicating all the facts, achievements and opportunities, especially to the 16- or 17-year-old high-school student that starts thinking about what they want to do with their lives.

And now, roughly six months later we hold the seminal piece of the new brand in our hands, fresh off the press. I hope this viewbook will inspire and convince the audience as much as we were inspired and convinced. And when it comes to advocating, no question I am now on Notre Dame’s side.

See more work for Notre Dame here.