Partner with MarCom
The Marketing and Communications Department (MarCom) at City Colleges is here to help you promote your events and opportunities, share your news, and spread the word about all that CCC has to offer. Before making your request, please decide if your audience is internal (current faculty, staff, students, program partners, or other CCC stakeholders) or external (potential students, community members, or the general public), and review the guidelines below.
Our Marketing Liaisons are your first point of contact to coordinate a project or request:
- Harold Washington College: Eleni Tsoukatos
- Harry S Truman College: Jason Sommer
- Kennedy-King College: Mariah Cowan
- Malcolm X College: David Nobel
- Olive-Harvey College: Mariah Cowan
- Richard J. Daley College: David Nobel
- Wilbur Wright College: Jason Sommer
- District Office: Jason Sommer
Start A Conversation With Your College Liason
Fill out the form below:
Explore
Guidance for Common Requests
Emails (Internal)
Messages that pertain to students, faculty, and staff at more than one college across the district are sent via email by the Communications Department. These will be coordinated and written with the appropriate department representation. Often, these messages can be included in the faculty/staff and/or student newsletters. To learn more, please contact Hannah Mills at hmills5@ccc.edu.
Timeline: At least 1 week before you would like your message to be sent.
Emails (External)
If you’d like your message to reach an external audience, please reach out to Anne Kennedy at akennedy10@ccc.edu.
Every City Colleges event should be added to the central Events Calendar. This ensures the event is shareable on our platforms, and will appear on the pertinent college homepage. Any faculty or staff member has access to add an event by going to www.ccc.edu/eventform.
You can watch a quick how to video here.
Event Materials
If your college or department is hosting an event on campus, the Marketing Department can provide you with support materials, including event programs, directional signage, flyers, handouts, and more. The larger the event/expected attendance, the more lead time your materials will need. Please contact your college’s Marketing Liaison directly.
Timeline: 6–8 weeks before your event.
If you would like to post your event or announcement on the LCD (TV) screens at your college, please work with the Marketing Liaison for your college after you have received approval from your college admin.
Timeline: 2–3 weeks weeks before you would like your notice to appear on the LCD screens.
If you’ve been asked to represent, appear, or speak on behalf of City Colleges on the radio, TV, social media platforms, web, or other public communication platforms, the Communications Department can help you prepare for your appearance with a media training, talking points, or other support. In addition, forward all requests to the Communications Department at communications@ccc.edu.
Timeline: Please contact communications@ccc.edu as soon as possible after you have been contacted and ideally before you accept the offer.
The City Colleges News Blog (www.ccc.edu/news) houses a wide range of articles, including student successes, faculty and staff highlights/projects, new partnerships and initiatives, and CCC in the news. If you have an idea for a blog post, please contact communications@ccc.edu.
411 Newsletter (Internal)
During the term, the 411 Newsletter is sent out every other week. If your opportunity, event, or news applies to all faculty, staff, or students across the district, please send it to communications@ccc.edu so it can be included in the district-wide newsletter.
Timeline: 2 weeks before you would like to see it appear in a newsletter.
City Colleges Community Newsletter (External)
City Colleges also releases an external newsletter to community partners every month. If you have a positive story you think would be a good addition, please reach out to communications@ccc.edu. You can see past newsletters here.
If your poster or flyer will be used within the college only, please use the college-specific templates available at www.ccc.edu/branding.
If your poster will be used externally, please contact your Marketing Liaison.
Timeline: 3–4 weeks before you would like to display or distribute your piece.
Please note that this timeline is for marketing materials that can be printed by CCC’s in-house reprographics centers. Projects requiring materials such as vinyl, mesh, acrylic, or other special production materials will require additional production time. MarCom can source external production from our pool of Board-approved print vendors to assist in these special production methods.
If there is a newsworthy event that you would like to share with an audience outside of the City Colleges community, please contact the Communications Department at communications@ccc.edu. The Communications team can help to determine whether a press release is appropriate and can help you to craft and send one out. Before you contact the Communications team, please be sure that your department’s supervisor and/or college president has approved the idea.
Timeline: Ideally, 3 to six weeks before your event.
Staples is the official, Board-approved provider for all City Colleges of Chicago promotional items, which can include, but are not limited to, mugs, t-shirts, umbrellas, sweatshirts, cups, and other specialty items that cannot be produced by a typical print vendor or in-house by Reprographics.
Timeline: At least 6 weeks before the date you need them by.
Robocalls are typically reserved for registration (MarCom Department) and emergency notifications (College Office of Safety and Security). It is not generally recommended to send robocalls to current students, but to utilize other modes of communication.
Signage (Permanent)
The Marketing Department can assist in the designing, production, and assembly/application of permanent signage such as directional signage, wall decals, and exterior signage.
Timeline: As soon as possible. Permanent signage projects take considerable time to design, produce, and assemble/apply. The assembly/application of permanent signage usually takes place between semesters when students are typically not present.
Signage (Temporary)
See “Posters, Flyers, Banners, Other Temporary Materials/Signage” section.
If there is an event or opportunity you would like to share with the CCC community and beyond, social media is a helpful tool. We encourage you to share your notices with us, so we can determine which, if any, of our social media platforms would work best for your information.
Social media training is also available.
Timeline: At least 2 week2 before you would like to start sharing your message.
Colleges should use Navigate sparingly and on a personalized basis (advisor to advisee, faculty member to current student). No all-student or all-college blasts.
Advisors or faculty members should continue to send texts to students who have indicated that this is their preferred method of contact.
Advisors and faculty should only send texts to students they currently advise or teach. They should not send messages to all students or to the entire college.
Departments who would like to send a text message to a larger population of students should coordinate with MarCom via the college’s Marketing Liaison, who can determine whether or not to move forward with the request.
The MarCom Department has video production capabilities that can be used for, but are not limited to, recording events, student or staff interest pieces, student success and promotional videos for programs/initiatives. The CCC video production team can help you outline, plan, capture and produce your video, as well as help you determine what you want to achieve with it and where the final video should be published. Please contact your college’s Marketing Liaison.
Timeline: 4 weeks before an event if you would like footage captured of an event, 6–8 weeks before desired publishing/distribution date for other video projects
CCC staff is able to update their department’s webpage at any time, as long as the head of the department approves the changes/updates. If you are a staff member and do not know how to edit the webpage or need web credentials, please contact the IT Helpdesk.
Any website of or pertaining to City Colleges of Chicago, including without limitation, any research program, academic program, social program, or community program, must be approved by the Marketing Department prior to establishment and publication. All new websites must be hosted on City Colleges of Chicago’s main servers and developed using the Marketing Department’s content management system. Marketing has the authority to require that any website not in compliance with this policy be taken down.
Team Overview
The City Colleges of Chicago Marketing and Communications Department (MarCom) serves as in-house creative support for all marketing and communication needs, working with offices and departments across the system to tell the City Colleges story to a wide audience. The department’s mission is to preserve and strengthen the reputation and brand of City Colleges of Chicago through a variety of mediums, including print, digital, video, web, and social media, and promote City Colleges of Chicago through strategic marketing and branding.
The MarCom team produces and manages all external marketing assets, including advertising, print, and digital marketing collateral, photography and video production, as well as maintains and enforces CCC brand standards across the colleges.
MarCom is committed to driving initiatives that improve student retention and increase enrollment across all seven colleges.
MarCom Hubs and Key Contacts
David Deyhle
Vice Chancellor of Institutional Branding and Strategic Marketing
| Hub | Function | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Branding & Design | This hub is responsible for all college and system graphic design and branding. From flyers, to LCD screens, social media images and more, this team is responsible for creating and maintaining the look and feel of all our visual representations | Noah Medina Director Brand Design |
| Marketing | This team oversees our paid advertising, as well as manages the marketing assets for each college – working in concert with each President’s Office and the associated college teams. This team also managers City Colleges’ official social media properties. | Jason Sommer Executive Director Marketing |
| Communications & Content | This team creates content for both internal and external marketing and communications, and also handles all City Colleges media relationships and public relations. | Anne Kennedy Executive Director Communications |
| Creative Services |
The creative team creates and edits videos, and is responsible for photography across the system. |
Cesar Rodriguez Director Creative Services |
| Digital Strategy | This team handles City Colleges digital strategy, design, and user experience for our digital ecosystem. | Lisa Stok Executive Director Digital Strategy |
