A person with a backpack walking on a paved pathway in a park or campus with leafless trees, a red brick building, and a multi-story modern office building in the background.

Cornell Comms

2024 Report

A unified metrics baseline connecting authentic storytelling to measurable impact.

THE CHALLENGE

When Cornell needed to demonstrate its statewide value, we faced a critical communications opportunity.

Unite

30+

Communications

teams

Track

12.5

Cornell.edu page views

M

Support

13

Media hits demonstrating Cornell’s authority

K

MY ROLES

As Senior Director of Marketing and Brand Communications for Cornell:

Person gesturing with hands while talking in a meeting, with a laptop, notebook, and smartphone on the table

Directed a 20-person in-house studio

Video · Photo · Design · Web Dev

Group of people engaged in conversation indoors, seen through blurred colorful leaves in the foreground.

Crafted campus-wide content & brand strategy

Pitched concepts & workplans to senior leadership

Business meeting in a conference room with six attendees and a presenter, laptops, gift bags, and presentation screen.

Advised internal news and earned-media partners

Visual assets & story angles to amplify coverage

Stakeholder Engagement

Creative Leadership

Brand Strategy

WHAT WE DID

Coordinated, homegrown efforts across multiple in-house units with no external agency spend.

Earned Media

12.5K top-tier hits with 63% op-ed success rate and 382 press releases

Owned Media

News site delivered 4.5M unique visitors and 915K page views with 75% homepage clicks driving engagement

Targeted Outreach

NYS Impact newsletter with 22 strategic sends to key stakeholders

Cornell AI Initiative & Climate Initiative pitches generated impressive results with 1,075 hits across targeted media outlets

Focused messaging campaigns aligned with policy priorities and legislative calendars

ROI: Direct engagement with decision-makers and thought leaders across New York State

Social Media

78M impressions with 3M engagements

+12% Instagram follower growth demonstrating strong audience expansion

Rapid-Response Events

Canadian Wildfires package generated 231 placements including 29 top-tier hits through strategic crisis communications

METRICS

Quant and qual metrics demonstrating campaign success.

4.5M+

total impressions

(programmatic display)

↑ 3 % YoY • ↑ 41 % vs 5 yrs

78M+

total impressions

across all media 

+3 M engagements, +2 M unique followers over prev year

97%

adoption

of universal metrics

across 30+ units

WHY IT MATTERED

Embedded, sustainable change

Elevated Cornell’s global voice across AI, climate & policy.

Gave every unit a shared data language for smarter decisions.

Laid the foundation for trend analysis & resource focus in 2024.