The story behind ‘Where legends are made’

“If you had 30 seconds to tell a complete stranger who you are and what you value, what would you say?”

That is the question that Linda Bonnin posed to attendees of the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce during the quarterly luncheon on Sept. 25.

Bonnin is the vice president of strategic communications for the University of Alabama, although her background holds additional weight. 

She previously held the same title at Louisiana State University, was vice president of communications and marketing at the University of Memphis, has 23 years of experience in higher education and has worked in private, nonprofit and government sectors as well as the news media. But what has most recently brought her awards and accreditation is the campaign she built for Alabama: “Where legends are made.”

Bonnin thought of the campaign less than a year after starting at Alabama as she was falling asleep one night. After a quick bout of research to make sure another entity wasn’t using the same slogan and platform, she got to work creating a 30-second commercial that would air nationally.

“I wanted ours to be different [from other university’s commercials] … I wanted to talk about who we are, not exactly what we do,” she said. Bonnin said in her research and talking to individuals about Alabama, the words she most often heard were “legendary” and “legacy.”

It was that lead that put her on the path to “Where legends are made.” She said the idea, like that of many communications strategies, was to have the campaign say something people would remember. She wanted to find the “heart and soul” of Alabama and “tell the whole story” of the university.

“We are so much more than football, so it was important that we tell the whole story,” she said. “By the same token, football gives us a great platform to tell that story, so we launched our campaign with a football game in which about 8 million people were watching.”

Bonnin said she wanted the commercial to hit five points: speak to aspirations of both students and parents; connect to both 17-year-olds and the 70-year-old alum; fill alumni, donors, students and staff with pride; be authentic and bold “because we are Alabama and we couldn’t come out with some wimpy tagline”; and have a great storytelling leg.

She showed a few videos during the luncheon that highlighted both the campaign and the work that went into it, as well as the featured “legends” — those alumni who have gained both national and international acclaim — of Alabama. 

Some of the legends included professional golfer Justin Thomas; Emmy-nominated actress Sela Ward; Olympic track and field gold medalist Calvin Smith; CEO of Lockheed Martin and Fortune’s most powerful woman in business Marillyn Hewson; author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee; Broadway actor and “Hamilton” cast member Michael Luwoye; and founder of Laura Mercier Cosmetics Janet Gurwitch, among many others.

Bonnin said some “legends” will come back to the campus or serve as a guest speaker for a class, which she finds special — especially since each year, there are more than 35,000 students at Alabama “still writing their stories.”

Also during the luncheon, 2016 Mountain Brook High School graduate and Alabama junior Annie Hughes introduced the Mary Anne Glazner Community Champion Award, which honors the late Mary Anne Glazner, who owned Smith’s Variety in Crestline for about 40 years. The award, designed by MBHS’ Leadership Mountain Brook, recognizes Glazner as a “model community servant” and is aimed at honoring community champions annually.

The inaugural award was presented to Mary Anne Glazner’s son, Jim, and his family during the luncheon.

The next Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce luncheon will be Nov. 8 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will feature guest speaker Matt Saurage of Community Coffee.