Here at Viva Media Group, we often feel a responsibility to give back to our community when possible with our professional services. Considering that St.Mary’s Catholic School is our elementary school alma mater and that St.Mary’s Catholic Church is our home parish, we wanted to help grow the St. Mary’s brand and for it to be more visible with an updated, professional look.
We had been working with St.Mary’s since 2012 under the personal direction of Fr. Ricardo Garcia. We were commissioned to develop the current logo of the church as well as provide marketing support for the Annual Fall Festival and the Life Teen Youth Group Ministry.
Upon hearing reports of a declining enrollment, we approached Bishop Daniel Flores to discuss how we could possibly assist. We highlighted the need to improve the school brand by redesigning/ redeveloping the school website, keeping the user experience in mind. In this case, site visitors are parents and prospects. Information should be readily available and easily found.
The Bishop entertained the idea and gave his blessing for us to continue down the St. Mary’s hierarchy. We shared this information with Fr.Bert Diaz, the Parish priest, and Deacon Luis Zuniga. They both gave us their blessing to speak directly with the St. Mary’s school administration.
Historically, the St.Mary’s School website was rudimentary. Mrs. Gomez, the school principal, was in agreement with the need to update an antiquated website with current technology and functionality. She recognized there was a lack of resources needed to maintain their online presence. She understood the value of now investing in a robust, and responsive content management system. It would help showcase St. Mary’s school in a new light and provide tools for school teachers and staff to be more effective in promoting curriculum, special events, and fundraisers.
While preparing a proposal, we learned that the school had a very low budget available for any new work. After careful consideration, we offered to design and develop a feature rich, fully responsive online solution at no cost and maintain it for the same monthly fee that they were currently paying so it would not affect their budget. All of the logic, design, development, software licenses and custom digital assets were donated by Viva Media Group. Any third party resources needed were billed at cost.
The new website was completed, approved and launched within 45 days. Training on how to administer the new system was provided to the assigned faculty. Important information for parents was now easily accessed and more visible. An increase in online traffic was well received and appreciated. It was a wonderful testament to a beautiful new design, the utilization of the latest in open source technology, and updated social media tools. Since 2016 St.Mary’s Catholic School has seen a dramatic increase in enrollment and they are often at full capacity. In fact there is a waiting list of students who wish to attend this private school. It felt great to receive amazing feedback and reviews from faculty, parents, and visitors.
In summary, here at Viva Media Group, we are grateful for the opportunity to work with this great local private school and contribute to their positive growth. We’re proud of the work we accomplished and we continue to look for opportunities to serve our church and community, always grounded in faith.
“Everyday at St.Mary’s is a prayer answered!”
Viva St.Mary’s & Viva Cristo Rey!
MarCom Awards is an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievement by marketing and communication professionals. Entries come from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, public relations firms, design shops, production companies, and freelancers.
MarCom Awards is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The international organization consists of several thousand creative professionals. The Association oversees awards and recognition programs, provides judges, and sets standards for excellence.
As part of its mission, AMCP fosters and supports the efforts of creative professionals who contribute their unique talents to public service and charitable organizations. Over the past few years, AMCP’s Advisory Board has allocated over $250,000 in grants and contributions to support philanthropic efforts like COVID-19 relief efforts.
Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talents exceed a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. There were over 6,000 entries from 41 countries in the MarCom Awards 2021 competition.
The Gold Award is presented to those entries judged to exceed the high standards of the industry norm. Approximately 24 percent of participants were Gold Winners.
Being a Gold Winner is a tremendous achievement symbolized by the intricately detailed MarCom statuette. The MarCom graces the trophy cases of some of the top business and communication firms in the world. The statuette was created by Society Awards, a high-end design and manufacturing firm that recently updated the Golden Globe, Clio, MTV, and Academy of Country Music awards.
The St.Mary’s Catholic School Website was designed & developed by Viva Media Group. www.Viva.network
LINKS TO WEBSITES:
– St.Mary’s Catholic School WEBSITE: – https://stmarys-cs.org/
SPECIAL THANKS TO ST.MARY’S CATHOLIC SCHOOL “Gold MarCom Award Winning” TEAM:
Credits
– Bishop Daniel Flores
– Monsignor Heberto Diaz – Pastor, St. Mary’s Catholic Church
– Deacon Luis Zuniga – Parish Deacon, St. Mary’s Catholic Church
– Ana Gomez – Principal – St. Mary’s Catholic School
– Anna Lindsey – Director of Advancement and Enrollment – St. Mary’s Catholic School
– Andrew Puckett – Administrator of Technology – St. Mary’s Catholic School
