Communications Case Study: Community college and higher education

Cookson and the Community College System of NH (CCSNH) began working together in 2016 to research, develop, and promote business partnership profiles for the seven colleges. We crafted more than 100 profiles of these collaborative partnerships, which have received hundreds of media pick-ups. Since then, our partnership continued to expand and evolve to encompass many aspects of their promotional work across the state.

What We Did
  • Public relations
  • Communications
  • Branding & design
  • Annual report production
A collage of annual report pages featuring text, photos of people, infographics, funding statistics, and highlights from community college communications.
Community College System of New Hampshire logo featuring a blue arc and green marks above the text, reflecting strong community college communications.

Public relations and communications

We created a template for capturing partnerships between businesses and CCSNH colleges often around custom training programs created by the colleges that helped an organization upskill current employees or train new workers. These stories have been very well-received and are showcased on the college websites, in posters around the colleges, in annual reports, and through social media.

 

We regularly provide overall communications advice and counsel to the colleges and the system office assisting with PR efforts including media releases, alumni profiles and the Choose Community e-newsletter geared to NH legislators. We have also developed and placed numerous op-eds for college presidents to help raise the profile of the work and role of the colleges within their communities.

Press Releases shared
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Feature Stories Written
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Op Eds Placed
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A computer screen displays a mission statement and a map of New Hampshire with labeled locations, highlighting community college communications across the state.

Branding and design

Our design work with CCSNH has spanned multiple areas, including posters, flyers, icons, print and digital ads, annual reports, email marketing templates, and infographics. During the pandemic in 2020, we developed a suite of materials on COVID-19-related information for each of the seven community colleges.

 

We have also taken a consulting role on branding and best practices, running team brainstorms and creating style guidelines for a variety of custom programmatic community college campaigns.

Icons showing COVID-19 safety measures, including masks, hand washing, social distancing, and vaccination—ideal for community college communications to promote campus safety.
Two graduates in caps and gowns smiling, with New Hampshire map and college financial aid program info in the foreground, highlighting community college communications initiatives.
Blue poster for the Community College System of New Hampshire Promise Program, featuring a QR code and college logos, highlights community college communications.

“Cookson has become an extension of our internal team, enabling us to develop, hone and amplify our message well beyond anything we could have done internally. Of particular note is their ability to work with stakeholders across our organization to capture and develop a wide variety of content and deliver it in a way that supports a central message. Their design expertise has led to the creation of visually compelling pieces, including collateral and web assets. Account service is highly responsive, helpfully proactive, and undertaken with a well-honed understanding of our mission and needs. The team has provided a very significant quantitative and qualitative value-add to our public relations efforts.”

Shannon Reid

Executive Director of Government Affairs and Communications, CCSNH

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