Quick Links
About Capstone
Capstone helps schools create more effective print magazines through action plans, strategic storytelling, and online courses.
Create a successful “reputation-building” story
Lots of print alumni magazines dutifully inform their readers about what’s going on at their schools.
But in many cases, you want a story to do more than inform. You also want it to perform: to build visibility among key audiences, to showcase your school’s strengths, and to align tightly with a school’s larger strategic plan.
That’s what Engineering at Maryland set out to do with “Built for the Breakthrough,” the cover story for its Fall/Winter 2024 issue.
I’m excited to share how Capstone partnered with the team at Maryland Engineering, which includes editor Melissa Andreychek and art director Matt Laumann.
Together, we created a story that belonged on the coffee table (and executive desk!) — and served as the foundation of a much larger initiative. It extended across digital platforms, including a months-long social media campaign, and appeared in national outlets in print and digital form.
Here’s exactly what that looked like.
Big ideas — and big stakes
Melissa leads a magazine that has long benefited from significant institutional and leadership support.
It’s a gorgeous publication that is thoughtfully developed, sharply written, and beautifully designed.
But she is also deeply aware of what that investment of support demands. The publication must do more than land on readers’ coffee tables!
It must also:
- Meet the high expectations of internal stakeholders
- Resonate with influential external audiences, including deans and chairs of other engineering programs and potential funders
- Work in lockstep with the school’s strategic plan
So when her team began shaping a story that would publish just before a major gift announcement for a new research center in translational engineering and medicine, she knew the story would have to match the moment.
She called in Capstone to help.
A story designed for impact
Melissa brought in Capstone to help shape what became “Built for the Breakthrough,” a multipart feature designed to build trust in — and visibility for — the school’s health-related engineering research and innovation, especially among potential collaborators and funders.
She noted that Capstone’s editorial instincts — bold headlines, chunked copy, and reader-friendly packaging — aligned with what the busy academic leaders they hoped to reach wanted.
This alignment was crucial because Melissa approaches her publication with the precision of an engineer. She and her team build stories with intention, thinking through the entire life cycle of each feature from stakeholder buy-in to post-publication amplification.
And Capstone’s approach made it easier to build the different components of this content engine.
How Capstone delivered an irresistible story for the right audience
To create a story that worked on multiple levels — from informing the curious reader to impressing high-level stakeholders — I focused on a few key details:
Audience-driven editorial
While every story has to resonate with Maryland’s whip-smart, analytical engineering alumni, this feature was also specifically designed to capture the attention of funders and peer school leaders. It needed to highlight both the institution’s big-picture thinking and concrete accomplishments. Melissa and I worked together to develop a story pitch that resonated with her leadership team.
Headlines and structure optimized for scanning
Every word of every story earned its way onto the page, but through sharp, impact-focused headlines and context-setting introductions, I aimed to ensure that even those spending just 30 seconds with the story would take away something meaningful from it.
Modular feature packaging that could be remixed for every channel
Narrative features have their place, but in this case, the multipart packaging was valuable not just for the print reader, but for the kinds of online storytelling Melissa and her team planned to do after publication.
A highly packaged story that is more than the sum of its parts
Every small story within the package was strong enough to work on its own — but together, they told a bigger story about the school’s ambitions and successes.
These approaches were among the many subtle details that helped this story achieve its larger goals.
The foundation for a larger campaign
“Built for the Breakthrough” became the foundation of a multifaceted content campaign that included:
- Direct mailing to alumni and friends, peers, and state lawmakers
- Placement in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s print magazine
- A special edition newsletter deployed as a digital magazine issue
- A news story to seed the magazine CTA across all of the Clark School’s web properties
- A landing page to stretch the feature’s reach to digital audiences
- A months-long social media campaign with custom photography, custom illustration, multimedia teasers that published to campus digital screens, and a companion for-social video about a featured faculty member
- Paid placements in the First Bell newsletter (American Society for Engineering Education)
- Amplification toolkits to helped stakeholders reshare content
It was a lot! And the single print magazine story served as its foundation.
Real-world results
The response was immediate and meaningful. Here are a few quick examples:
National visibility boost
One faculty member featured in the piece reported outreach from NSF and NIH colleagues and cited the story as excellent visibility ahead of a National Academies presentation.
Personal impact
Another reader was deeply moved to learn that Maryland engineers were tackling an eye condition her son has — strengthening her connection to the institution.
New storytelling angles
A campus communicator said the story helped her see a familiar researcher’s work in a new light, giving her fresh ideas for future projects.
More than a story — a strategic asset
This wasn’t just a single, well-told story. It was a powerful foundation for a well-oiled communications engine.
Melissa credits Capstone’s partnership as one reason the piece worked so effectively.
“It’s challenging to catch (and keep) our busy audience’s attention,” she says. “Capstone’s approach to content and packaging supported what we know about our readers’ preferences.”