Anatolia Gets the Word - and Image - Out

Is not enough for Anatolia to be a great school," says President Richard Jackson. "We need to let the world know we are a great school. We need a communications strategy that will allow us to compete with top schools every­where for students, faculty, and philanthropy - not just in Greece, but in Europe and the U.S. as well." To that end, Anatolia has recently embarked on a major upgrade of its public relations and communications effort.
Hercules Mousiades '79, Director of the Marketing for Anatolia, elaborates: "Since the beginning of this year, we've taken steps to develop and execute an integrated, institution-wide approach to reach our local and international constituencies. We're linking our three divisions more closely under one Anatolia "brand" and positioning and promoting each division in its respective market. This is not only about advertising, but about using all the tools at our disposal to establish and build an ongoing relationship



with the public." The results of this effort are apparent in the form of electronic newsletters like ACT's 'Vision", an extensive range of new, high-quality printed material for each division, the recently overhauled Anatolia websites (www.anatolia.edu.gr and www.act.edu), four new DVDs about the school, increased media coverage - as well as print, radio, email and outdoor advertising.

Commenting on the school's website, Panos Vlachos, Chair of Science and Technology at ACT, observes: "It's not just a matter of image but of accessibility. We want our website to reflect the user-friendly experience that students will have at this school. During the past year we've seen a substantial increase in the number of web visitors, with over 9000 individual visitors monthly, over 60% of them from abroad.

The new DVDs about Anatolia and ACT are available both in disc format and on-line .



Alumnus Alexandros Kambouroglou '89 wrote and produced the DVDs at cost with his Athens-based company Myga. Three of the DVDs are directed at prospective ACT students (undergraduate, study abroad, and MBA), while the fourth presents the institution as a whole and will be used to support fundraising efforts. The new DVDs were made possible through the generosity of Anatolia Trustee and ACT Governance Chair Jack Florentin and his fellow Trustee John Pappajohn.

Kambouroglou comments: "For the student-recruitment DVDs, we decided to let ACT students and faculty do the talking. There's no narrator. We simply asked people to tell us, about aspects of ACT in their own words, and we did the rest as editors. The fact that students really like ACT made our job that much easier," The result is intimate but powerful testimony to the many strengths of the school. For the ten-minute institutional DVD a script was used. "But we also painted a picture through a kaleidoscope of hundreds of still and moving images. We wanted to produce a portrait that all Anatolians past and present could see themselves in. The message is one of connection, to what the school stands for and to each other." President Jackson and Board Chairman George Bissell, as well as Trustees Stavros Constantinides and Charlie Raphael appear in speaking roles.

There's more: The second annual President's Report, available on-line, presents a comprehensive review of the past Anatolia year. The newsletter you are reading, edited by
Anatolia English Chair Phil Holland and redesigned two years ago, is also part of Anatolia's revitalized communications outreach. Miss an issue? They're all available on the Anatolia website.

(Posting date 25 January 2007)

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