Purdue’s 150th Giant Leaps celebration
Executive Vice President for Communication
Date: October 25, 2018
To: Executive Vice Presidents, Chancellors, Vice Presidents, Vice Chancellors, Vice Provosts, Deans, Directors and Heads of Schools, Divisions, Departments and Offices
From: Dan Hasler, Executive Vice President for Communication
Re: Purdue’s 150th Giant Leaps celebration
I write with a “Giant” thank you to each and every one of you. Because of you, your teams and your help, we are well in to a year of celebration and thinking to the future of how Purdue University and its people can shape the world — how we can all take small steps that lead to Giant Leaps in solving the world’s biggest problems.
In just the past month since our 150th anniversary launch at Homecoming, the clear focus on themes that resonate here and beyond has drawn great attention from alumni, friends and media outlets around the country and world. The proof is in the numbers comparing Homecoming last year to this year:
- 52% increase in online conversation
- 400% increase in Twitter engagements
- 10% increase in total Facebook clicks
- 56% increase in media placements
- More than 13K visits to purdue.edu/giantleaps
Our 150th anniversary launch video, posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXGQcAWGj5o, has had close to 10,000 views on YouTube and more than 100K views on Facebook. I hope you’ll watch it again. And we also love the videos from some of our favorite alumni who have posted their own “Giant Leaps” videos, such as this one from Drew Brees: https://www.facebook.com/PurdueUniversity/videos/241072873226660/.
We can’t stop now! We continue to need your help — we have great opportunities to hear from experts and leaders, to engage in debate and discussion, and to explore grand challenges.
What’s worked so far? What do we need to stay focused on?
- Collaboration & buy-in. Cross-campus alignment, in terms of our content, messaging, voice, and tone — This paid off especially well during Homecoming weekend.
- A heightened focus on storytelling-focused content. It’s not a coincidence that the overall penetration of our campaign messages has exceeded past performance.
- Leveraging our existing content (and strengths!). Communicators have begun identifying existing and upcoming collateral and events that have potential ties to Giant Leaps.
As we build upon the momentum of the kick off, activity surrounding the Ideas Festival (IF), the centerpiece of Purdue’s Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign, is ramping up. IF will feature a series of events that connect world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation about the What IF problems facing our society.
I invite and encourage you to share with your teams, your colleagues and your communities far and wide the links and information below. Please note the Steven Pinker event on Oct. 30 and save the event details to your calendar. This is an upcoming Giant Leaps Ideas Festival Signature Event that you won’t want to miss.
10.29 — Fakery in Campaigns — Giant Leaps Series Event
10.30 — Steven Pinker, Health IF Event
11.1 — GIS Day Conference, Sustainable Planet IF Event
11.5-11.6 — Dawn or Doom, AI IF Event
11.7 — PU vs IU Student Debate, AI IF Event
11.8 — Bill Nye, Space IF Event
And please check back often as we add events and opportunities to our calendars and exciting content that we hope you’ll share.