DePaul University
DePaul University is pioneering higher education's future with the SPARK Center—an innovation hub tackling modern challenges. Collaborating with MarketSmiths, they craft a groundbreaking whitepaper to articulate this transformative vision.
Client
“The future of DePaul is a place of innovation… Students come to the university setting for exposure to diverse disciplines as well as marketable skills, tools, and capabilities that allow them to solve the most pressing problems of our time."
Founded in 1898, DePaul University has long been renowned for its commitment to providing a transformative education rooted in Catholic Vincentian values. Guided by a mission to foster academic excellence, lifelong learning, and social responsibility, DePaul has played a pivotal role in shaping the intellectual and cultural landscape of Chicago.
However, in the face of mounting skepticism surrounding the value of a college degree in a rapidly changing world, DePaul finds itself at a crossroads: What does the future of academia look like, amidst evolving technological advancements and complex societal needs?
Under the visionary leadership of President Rob Manuel, DePaul University began a profound paradigm shift that will redefine the soul of higher education. At the heart of this strategic evolution lies the SPARK Center—a beacon of innovation, nestled within the university’s campus. In this dynamic forum, collegiate scholars and community stakeholders converge to confront three of the most pressing challenges of our time—poverty and inequality, sustainability, and the emerging frontier of artificial intelligence.
“A single discipline doesn’t have all the solutions,” acknowledges Arbin Smith, DePaul’s Chief of Staff & VP of Strategic Initiatives. “Students come to the university setting for exposure to diverse disciplines as well as marketable skills, tools, and capabilities that allow them to solve very complex problems.” He adds, “We saw an opportunity to stake our claim and assert our relevance—not just in this moment—but as an integral part of Chicago’s academic landscape.”
DePaul University engaged MarketSmiths from April 2023 to January 2024 to construct a thoughtfully-designed whitepaper that would breathe life into their journey. At the time, the SPARK Center hadn’t broken ground yet. “It did not exist. It was a concept in our mind,” Arbin reminisces. In essence, the whitepaper was to serve as a persuasive tool—articulating the president’s vision, outlining DePaul’s unique capacity to build this ambitious center, and galvanizing stakeholders to bring the concept from figment to fruition.
“What I found most helpful was the responsiveness of Paul and his team.”
— Arbin Smith, Chief of Staff & VP of Strategic Initiatives
Challenges
"Quite frankly, no one internally had the capability or capacity for this project... I felt it was probably best to sit with a third party that could receive the information and massage it into one voice that resonates."
Challenge: Internal Resource Constraints
Arbin reveals the project faced a significant hurdle due to the lack of internal resources. “Quite frankly, no one internally had the capability or capacity for this project,” he notes. As a writer himself, Arbin recognized the complexity of the task and the need for external expertise. “With so many moving pieces and different audiences, I felt it was probably best to sit with a third party that could receive the information and massage it into one voice that resonates.”
To address this challenge, Arbin leveraged Google and ChatGPT to compile a shortlist of potential agency partners. “I needed to find someone who had both the quantitative data and real tangible deliverables to prove they had done something like this before,” he says.
After looking over relevant samples, Arbin was impressed with MarketSmiths’ connections to higher education and innovation—but also with our human-centered approach to storytelling: “It had to be rooted in empiricism, but accessible to regular people who don’t read academic papers.”
Challenge: Communication to Diverse Stakeholders
Once DePaul secured a copywriting vendor, the next order of business became, “How do we communicate this vision to a wide array of stakeholders?” This included students, faculty, board members, council members, investors, donors, and community groups.
Rather than create 30 nuanced variations of the same story, DePaul wanted to “thread the needle” and “find that sweet spot” that resonated with all parties. They required a logical framework that would wrap its arms around an amorphous concept and engage readers on a structured journey, without getting lost in the details.
MarketSmiths collaborated closely with DePaul, delving into their aspirations and challenges. The team supplied DePaul with writers, researchers, and editors to bring the piece “from 30,000 feet down to the ground in a cohesive way,” as Arbin put it. Leveraging expertise in storytelling, we crafted a narrative that emphasized the SPARK Center’s role as a catalyst for innovation and social change.
Challenge: Collaborative Iteration
Refining ideas and navigating internal consensus proved crucial throughout the project. Arbin underscores the importance: “From the outset, we prioritized continuous iteration, pressure testing, and socializing ideas with the Joint Council until unanimous agreement was reached.”
“It was quite a lengthy process,” MarketSmiths Content Strategist Paul Rosevear explains. “We had a couple initial drafts that leaned on the academic side, but after iterating with Arbin and the president, we landed on a format and tone that captured more of the aspirational, visionary nature of the space.”
Acknowledging the responsive teamwork led by Paul, Arbin recalls, “He would always say, ‘Take a look at it and tell us if we’re hitting the right note and if we’re not, we’re happy to take another gander at it,’ so that was great. It was never like, ‘We’re done with it and there’s nothing else we can do.’ MarketSmiths was always willing to respond to the feedback we were sharing.”
“I would absolutely work with MarketSmiths again. You brought the A-Team and did an amazing job for us.”
— Arbin Smith, Chief of Staff & VP of Strategic Initiatives
Shared Success
"We're very close to securing our first project for the SPARK Center, which could be a pretty significant financial commitment... through the use of this collateral and the conversations that followed, we've been able to secure a sizable engagement through a family foundation."
Delivering Exceptional Marketing Collateral
“When you think of a whitepaper, it sounds heavily academic,” reflects Paul Rosevear, Content Strategist at MarketSmiths. “But the more we dug into it, the more we recognized the opportunity to infuse the statistics and data they wanted with the emotion and flair of polished storytelling. We’ve been calling it a whitepaper, but it ended up being more like a marketing booklet.”
Collaborating closely with DePaul, MarketSmiths crafted a narrative that encapsulated the essence of the SPARK Center’s genesis and the envisioned impact on the external community. According to Arbin, these components were positioned “in the most impactful way.”
“We did quite a bit of interviewing with subject matter experts from DePaul,” recalls Paul. Our team gathered information on awards, expertise, alumni networks and community ties from all the different schools that fall under the DePaul umbrella. “DePaul already had a lot of influence and connection to the surrounding Chicago area, so it was a question of, ‘How can we bring that to the fore’?”
Arbin especially enjoys the section titled, “A Center for a Better Tomorrow,” which highlights the immediate outcome: the opportunity for students, faculty, and community members to make an investment in the future. “I think it’s something that everybody gets excited about—because, regardless of your aspirations, you see yourself as part of this—and that’s what creates our relevance.”
Bringing Vision to Life
Arbin proudly displays a copy of the booklet on his desk: the glossy cover with branded colors and slick pages have a professional, high-end feel that anyone would be proud to have on their coffee table. “Honestly, I love the entire document,” he says. “It answers all the questions of something that does not yet exist. This… makes it feel tangible.”
Two months after wrapping on the whitepaper, construction on the SPARK Center is underway. They’re progressing on track—with fundraising and campaigning in the early stages of development. So far, DePaul has shared the material in one-offs with private donors, foundations, corporations, and community groups—where it has been “very well-received.”
Securing Financial Support
Exciting developments are on the horizon as Arbin shares, “We’re on the verge of securing our first project for the SPARK Center, which could be a pretty significant financial commitment.” He credits the traction gained to the collateral and ensuing conversations, leading them to secure a “sizable engagement through a family foundation.”
DePaul’s overarching goal for the center is financial sustainability, ensuring it thrives independently of university funds. Arbin emphasizes, “Securing projects and external interest is crucial for the SPARK Center’s long-term viability.”
A Testament to Partnership
Arbin’s glowing endorsement encapsulates the fruitful collaboration: “I would absolutely work with MarketSmiths again. You brought the A-Team and did an amazing job for us. It’s been a great ride so far.”
Reflecting on the partnership, we’re proud to have played a part in DePaul University’s journey towards innovation and societal impact. Looking ahead, the team is eager to continue collaborating, leveraging our background knowledge of the mission and collective expertise to further propel DePaul’s mission in shaping the future of higher education.
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