'Be Here' St. Louis Tour Video (Saint Louis University)

Prospective university students want to know what they can do in their adopted city; after all, college isn't just about academics.

As video began to emerge as a viable platform for Saint Louis University in the late 2000s, I was asked to produce something that would showcase all that St. Louis had to offer 17-year-old students and ease their minds (and their parents' minds) about living in a big city. The video also needed to coordinate with the university's evolving new student recruitment brand "Be a Billiken." Good thing I already was the creator and guardian of the brand's voice in other mediums.

As I went into production, BeABilliken.com (the student recruitment storytelling portal) already had featured a short video of student soundbytes about the St. Louis, so I decided to let a single student take viewers on a tour of her favorite haunts. I chose Chelsey as the video tour guide to tie in with her appearances in SLU's other major marketing materials and for her knowledge and enthusiasm about her hometown. I wrote a script that covered several important neighborhoods in depth and coordinated all logistics for shooting and consistency. With a local video production company, I then assembled the bits into a cohesive tour that was lauded by students, parents, administration and city leaders.

This was my favorite project to oversee during my 10 years in SLU's marketing department. Working with Chelsey and the studio was fantastic, but even better, thinking through how a young student might approach St. Louis reinvigorated my love for the city.

Play the video below or watch it on Vimeo.