For new Director of Marketing and Communications, coming to Malvern is a sort of homecoming.
Director of Marketing and Communications Mrs. Allison Hall began working at Malvern in July, and is using her background to aim for a unified marketing message for the school.
Hall was a marketing major at Loyola University Maryland. In recent years she has worked for private marketing companies in Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia.
“I was at my last agency for five years doing corporate brand marketing and I just wanted a complete change of pace,” she said.
The transition from a global marketing role to Malvern is fairly dramatic for Hall, but she said she is up for the challenge.
“The audience is much different because this is a very niche market,” Hall said. “It’s the location itself. We’re focused on southeast Chester County, whereas before I was in a more global role… this is more specialized.”
Hall acknowledges her new job is a change of pace, and is learning the goals of her position.
“I think it’s getting to know the competition here for Malvern, trying to get kids in the door from an admissions perspective, and obviously raising money from a development perspective. It’s just different than my goals in the past,” Hall said.
To Hall, unity is an important in a marketing strategy.
“If they see one message from the football team, one message from academics, one message from rowing, they don’t truly get a sense of who Malvern is. That’s one of the things I was brought on to do, create one unifying message,” she said.
As a student at Villa Maria Academy, Hall saw one version of Malvern. Now that she’s here, she is learning more about the school.
“When I was at Villa, I would only come to Malvern for dances or to sell concessions at the plays. That was something I looked forward to, but I never got the sense of community that I now see on the inside,” she said.
Beyond Austin Hall, Hall is a mother to two children, Olivia and Evan, who go to Sts. Peter and Paul in West Chester.
Overall, Hall is thrilled to become a part of the Malvern community and to be closer to home.
“It’s a place where the faculty and staff care not only about the students but about the families,” Hall said. “That’s part of what makes Malvern so unique from an environment and cultural perspective from any other place I’ve worked.”
