Case Study for Agency
03-1014943-896

Where a university learned to grow.

Situation

A once stellar university needed a makeover.

There was turmoil at the top: With four presidents in three years, the
media reported little but gloom and doom. Admissions numbers were way
off. So was the quality of applicants.

And with increasing competition for students, it was already late in
the game.

No surprise that an audit of their recent marketing efforts showed a
scattershot approach, one lacking vision, integration and consistency.

But there was good news too. A new administration brought new energy
and commitment. The "product" was fundamentally good: A great faculty,
excellent facilities, a diverse student body. And an alumni that
provided living proof the university produces outstanding achievers.

Marketing challenge

Our objectives were to reverse a decline in enrollment. Measurably
change perceptions about the quality of the university. And raise the
level of the applicant pool.

The solution

The Strategy
In our view, Adelphi Uinversity offered prospective students a place to
explore a diversity of interests. So we chose to use bold, offbeat
portraits of students, faculty and alumni to portray an institution
where a multi-disciplined, passionate student would thrive.We developed
a unique, totally integrated marketing solution. One that spoke to
prospective students. In their terms.

Print ads
Typical college advertising showed smiling, pensive students and lush
campus photos. Our research showed that by and large, kids didn’t trust
the "advertising" message. Too slick. Too self-serving. Not real. Our
campaign captures the real student, faculty member, and alumni in bold,
attention getting photographs, accompanied by brief profiles
illustrating a wonderfully complex group of people that make this
university a great place to prepare for the future.

TV spots
Bold portraits of typical Adelphi students included one of a passionate
swing dancer, showing that the typical Adelphi student has a
multiplicity of passions. Swing dancing is particularly hot among
college students. The subject provided a wonderful visual to generate
an appealing and atypical TV spot for a university.

Viewbook
The cornerstone of our campaign, the viewbook is presented with the
notes, jottings and mementos of a fictional prospective student named
Mike. His candid, funny and sometimes irreverent notes gives the reader
a "real" student’s view of life at Adelphi.

Direct Marketing
A major direct mail effort was undertaken to capture interested
students. Photographs, collage elements and graphics present the
university, not as an august and remote institution of higher learning,
but as a place where students can find their way to the future.

Web
A sprawling university web site of more than 1700 individual pages
missed the major opportunity to market, position and brand the
university. We took this critical piece of the marketing communications
mix and gave it a complete overhaul, bringing it into strategic and
creative alignment with our campaign.

The Results

Through a totally integrated campaign comprised of market research,
print ads, tv spots, brochures, direct marketing and web redesign, we:

attracted the largest freshman class in seven years

scored a 10% increase in applications

achieved the highest applicant pool in 18 years

substantially raised the average SAT scores of the enrolling class.