Bringing MCLA’s Story to Life on Camera

Three people speak on smartphones about their college experiences, each with captions and a play button overlay.

Authentic video content that transforms MCLA’s five differentiators into stories people actually feel.

Strategy on a page is one thing. Making people feel it is another. After defining MCLA’s five pillars, we went back to campus with cameras and questions.

The Challenge

MCLA had a clear brand story. Now it needed content that could carry that story to the platforms where prospective students actually are: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. The institution needed human, emotional, shareable content, not a traditional promo video that lives on a homepage and dies.

Challenge

Approach

Solution

Our Approach

We embedded on campus with one rule: no scripts, no staging. We found real students, faculty, staff, and alumni whose lives naturally embodied each pillar, then let them talk.

In collaboration with Knack Factory, our video production partner, every shoot was planned for maximum output from day one. Long-form pieces for the website. Mid-length profiles for admissions and alumni engagement. Dozens of short-form snippets built for social.

Challenge

Approach

Solution

Five Themed Pillar Videos

One anchor video per differentiator. A first-generation graduate on what affordability meant for her family. An international student on the warmth of the community. A professor on how the Berkshires become part of the curriculum. Real stories, real people, real proof.

Collage of students on campus: weaving yarn, check-in sign, aerial view, library, and students walking outside.

Student and Alumni Profiles

Studio artists, data scientists, student-athletes, community organizers. The breadth of MCLA’s “something for everyone” promise, shown through the people living it.

Two images of a young woman with curly hair, smiling; one speaking, one sitting at a desk with paperwork.

Dozens of Social Snippets

Short-form clips pulled from the broader shoots, edited and formatted to stop the scroll on every major platform. Each one rooted in the same strategic pillars driving the larger narrative.

Three young adults standing side by side, each facing forward against a plain white background.

The Result

MCLA now has a deep, versatile content library serving enrollment, alumni relations, and social media, all from a single, strategically unified production effort.

The videos work because they’re real. Prospective students see themselves in the stories. Families feel the community. Alumni reconnect with the place that shaped them.

Together with the homepage redesign, this gives MCLA a complete storytelling ecosystem: strategy, design, and content all speaking the same language.

If you need a web/digital agency, hire ERI. They’re currently working on a web project for me and I couldn’t be happier . Everyone at MCLA has been delighted with them. I met Erjon Metohu and Raffi DerSimonian exactly a year ago. Since then, they’ve impressed me time and time again. Their approach to partnerships is exceptional. They’ve effectively embedded themselves in the MCLA culture to gain a deeper understanding of our unique needs, value propositions, and goals. Their mix of intelligence and kindness has earned them my trust. That’s why I continue to reach out to them with more work.