Project Requests

Let's Collaborate!

The University of Lynchburg’s Office of Marketing and Communications (MarCom) provides news coverage, advertising, branding, print publications, photography, videography, and web services for the University. Contact us today to get started on your project!

Please submit any print, story, or photo requests at least four weeks before the deadline. Rush jobs, if accepted, may be sent to freelancers and will incur additional charges (the requesting department is responsible for these charges).

Priorities

Before submitting your request, please review our project priorities:

Level One (Top Priority)

If your project falls into this level, we will prioritize it. These projects are taken on by experienced in-house staff, with some help from freelancers. They include strategic priorities such as undergraduate and graduate admissions publications, advertising, webpages, the Lynchburg Magazine, the Annual Report, and GiveDay, as well as major speakers/events.

Projects that directly support undergraduate recruitment. This includes the viewbook and other print publications for undergraduate recruitment, admissions emails, admissions, and other top-tier webpages, advertising, and swag used by admissions in the recruitment cycle.
Projects that directly support graduate recruitment. This includes the graduate viewbook and other print publications for graduate studies, as well as web pages and advertising.
Projects that support advancement. This includes the Annual Report, GiveDay, year-end giving communications, donor stories, and stewardship.
Projects requested by the Office of the President.
Projects that promote major and/or public University events. This includes Commencement, Homecoming, and high-level speakers.
News stories, photos, or videos for the University website and main social media channels that fall into one of the above categories.

Level Two

If your project falls into Level 2, we will accommodate it based on other deadlines and depending on when your request is submitted. Level 2 projects are taken on by experienced in-house staff, freelancers, or students. They include public lectures and events, as well as non-public events central to the Lynchburg experience. We may decline Level 2 requests depending on the current workload.

Projects that promote other public University events. This includes lectures, concerts, and other events. The event must be promoted off campus.
Projects that promote non-public events integral to the Lynchburg experience. This includes awards ceremonies and student life events.

Level Three

Projects at this level are usually assigned to students, based on availability. We may decline Level 3 requests depending on the current workload.

Internal services for departments. (This includes student headshots and small/organizational/club events or ceremonies, etc.)

We cannot support all requests to stream events. Livestreaming requests are generally only accepted on Level 1 events. We reserve the right to decline these requests based on workload or staffing.

Understanding Our Collaborative Roles

The MarCom Client Success Manager

MarCom uses the project management and collaboration platform Asana and Lytho for proofing. After you’ve submitted a project request form, it will be reviewed and prioritized in the project queue. Your department’s assigned client success manager in MarCom will:

Review your request, contact you with any questions, and, ultimately, accept, archive, or decline your request. Accepting your request creates a “project” in Asana and invites appropriate MarCom team members to the project. This includes a staff writer to review and edit content submissions, ensuring the University’s editorial style is followed, and a graphic designer and/or photographer/videographer to create supportive visual assets.
Create a production schedule to ensure the targeted deadline is met.
Communicate with the Lead Contact if there are questions throughout the process or if the production schedule needs to be adjusted.
Ensure proofs are shared with the Lead Contact for review, feedback, and final approval. The Lead Contact can include other stakeholders in the proof review and approval processes.
In the case of a printed brochure or publication, ensure estimates and P.O. numbers are requested, shared with the Lead Contact, and submitted with the print orders.
Ensure final files or printed pieces are delivered to the appropriate contact(s).

The Lead Contact Person

Determine who from your department or team will serve as the lead contact person for this project. This person will serve as the content expert and the liaison between your department and MarCom. Their role will be to:

Clarify with your department the initial objective at the start of the project (e.g., who is the audience you are trying to reach, what you want your audience to do, why, where, and by when).
Prepare draft text content as either Google Docs (shared) or Word docs and submit with your Asana request.
Seek feedback from your department stakeholders (as/if needed) at the start of the project and as it progresses to completion.
Carefully review and approve proofs to ensure facts are accurate and current. Also, ensure any stakeholders in your department have reviewed and approved it.
Respond promptly to any questions or action items shared with you from MarCom.
Ensure that you have funding available to cover expenses related to the project (e.g., printing, production of an imprinted item, costs related to placing advertisements, postage/shipping costs, etc.).

How to Review, Provide Edits, and Approve Proofs

A link to the proof of the project will be shared with you via an email notification from Lytho. Major or lengthy edits at the proof stage can delay your project. That’s why it’s always best to think through and get departmental approval on your draft copy/text content and objectives before work with MarCom begins. Any edits made to your submitted text will be reviewed with you for approval before moving forward with your project.

Once you receive an email notification that a proof is up for review, we give clients three days to review before renotifying the client to review the proof and submit their approval status. Please keep in mind that the longer your review and approval process takes, the longer it will take us to complete your project. If you have a problem with your proof and want to discuss what’s been shared, then please schedule a time with the Project Manager. (The MarCom team uses Google Calendar, making checking for mutual availability easy.)

Below are a few more links to helpful Lytho tutorials.