- “We the Champions” campaign seeks to tell stories of Liberty students and faculty who embody Liberty’s mission of “Training Champions for Christ.”
- The campaign started internally at Liberty’s marketing department and hopes to create unity and community at Liberty.
Liberty University’s “We the Champions” campaign, which focuses on inspiring people through sharing stories of Liberty students and faculty, is quickly growing with the addition of the ongoing “We the Champions” flag mini campaign and the announcement of the first Champion Award recipient.
Emily Hensler was presented the Champion Award Oct. 9 during Convocation for her leadership and activism in many events, such as the 9/11 Never Forget Project and Freedom Week. Hensler’s faith and character was displayed when she suddenly lost her father but maintained strong academic marks and preserved her faith. She is scheduled to graduate in December.
The flag campaign launched Sept. 14 with the intent of raising awareness of the “We the Champions” campaign both on campus and off. Through the mini campaign, students are prompted to post on social media with a flag christened with the “We the Champions” logo. The posts focus on how the user’s faith has been strengthened or what they believe represents championship in their Liberty experience.
The larger “We the Champions” campaign launched during the first Convocation of the semester. The initiative, which emulates the U.S. Constitution’s first line of “We the People,” aims to create unity by signifying the Liberty experience, which surrounds the schools eminent vision—“Training Champions for Christ.”
According to the campaign’s website, its purpose is to highlight the university’s unyielding mission to train champions for Christ through acts of service, integrity, gratitude, humility, joy, love and unity in the lives of Liberty students, alumni, donors, faculty and staff.
“The university continues to find ourselves in the public eye, and it is the perfect time and opportunity to define ourselves before others do it for us,” Kristin Conrad, vice president of marketing and communications said. “This campaign was created to illustrate what it means to be a champion for Christ. That is our mission, and we want people to know that we still are training champions for Christ at Liberty University.”
“We the Champions” was created by two Liberty University alumni — video production director Caleb Atkins, who managed the marketing department’s video team, promotion material and television promotions, and art director Rachel Dugan, who facilitates visual standards for Liberty University.
In November of 2016, Atkins and Dugan were tasked with coming up with a campaign for the university.
“This campaign was built internally by Liberty people,” Atkins said.
The concept of storytelling was prominent even in the early stages of the campaign.
“Something Caleb and I had to do when we were creating this campaign was to look at our own stories,” Dugan said. “Like most Liberty students, we both had normal, average Liberty stories. This campaign is not so much about having this amazing story that you’re going to get up in Convocation and tell. It’s about how your life and the lives of those who make up Liberty University each show the connecting points and the different ways that God changed our lives here.”
Liberty University’s marketing department and community contributors spent time seeking and relying on the guidance of the Lord through fervent prayer on the ways to best communicate the campaign to those who make up Liberty University and to various platforms.
“One of the underlying things that the marketing department and those that contributed to the ‘We the Champions’ campaign was fervently praying that it would bring unity to the student body and faculty and staff,” Atkins said. “We began asking ourselves what we wanted to communicate to an audience who had a lot of questions about what and who Liberty University was and what the university stood for. From the campaign’s inception, we wanted to capture the experience of Liberty University and communicate that to our audience. It was very important for us to tell Liberty University’s foundational story.”
Since beginning of the process, the campaign’s focus had been in question.
“The video that students saw in Convo was the tip of the iceberg,” Atkins said. “Liberty’s mission statement is ‘Training Champions for Christ,’ and that’s not changing.”
“‘We the Champions’ gives context to that vision by showcasing (Liberty Champions) which encompasses Liberty University’s online and residential students, our faculty and staff, alumni and donors,” Atkins said. “This campaign ultimately highlights the ways in which we’re living out the vision. This campaign is bigger than a Convocation video. There’s a huge effort that we’ve put together in this campaign. There are a lot of strategies and mediums built into this campaign that haven’t been released yet and that we’re still planning out.”
Students can expect to see the ways in which the university will be showcasing the declaration through visual mediums across the university’s campus such as the campaign’s mantra being displayed on the steps of the Montview Student Union.
“This campaign is about defining the culture of Liberty in somewhat subtle ways across different mediums,” Dugan said. “‘We the Champions’ is fully integrative, an all-encompassing campaign, from our videos, to the way that we take photos, to the experience that people have through our visual pieces across campus or the things they receive in the mail.”
Students also have opportunities to participate personally in the campaign over the coming months by sharing their stories with the hashtag #WetheChampions.
Students can also email stories to wethechampions@liberty.edu and visit the “We the Champions” website to find information about the campaign.
“We’re wired as humans to respond to stories,” Atkins said. “Storytelling ultimately brings forth encouragement and authenticity.”