Through our research and discovery, we identified not only what needed to be communicated with students, but also how to speak to them. MediaCross created a content-rich marketing strategy that combined event, print, video and digital tactics to combat SMC’s multifaceted challenges.
To ensure that we could authentically capture the voice and personality of SMC, we led a full on-campus discovery and research session, meeting with key stakeholders and holding student focus groups. To gain better insight, we also sent a survey to hundreds of South Carolina high schoolers. New data in hand, we set off to craft a holistic, multi-faceted strategy to grow awareness and excitement about SMC’s new BA program. Our comprehensive digital marketing strategy included email communication, IP targeting, display/mirror-audience targeting, retargeting campaigns, and social advertising. Our next move was to craft a campaign concept—fundamental to implementing our strategy.
The Make Big Moves campaign was created to increase brand awareness, strengthen affinity and improve brand perception among prospective students. The campaign concept was designed to be minimal, clean and sophisticated. It was also bright, energetic and even funky to liven things up and encourage engagement. Make Big Moves is a battle cry, a motivational anthem designed to inspire action. It’s a reminder that every day is an opportunity for growth and transformation.
New concept in hand, it was time to create new recruitment pieces in order to arm SMC with the tools they needed to attract new students. We created exciting recruitment pieces including lookbooks for traveling recruiters, self-mailers, postcards and engaging college fair materials. The suite of recruitment materials were optimized to support the funnel by driving emotional interest in SMC and catapulting a prospect's ambition.
The toolkit ensured SMC had what they needed to be successful and attract ideal students, not just anonymous leads. Along with the new recruitment materials, SMC also needed a way to connect with students where they spend their most time—online and most often on a mobile device.
We created a digital viewbook which modernized and personalized the college search experience, and condensed new student-specific information into an easily navigable, online tool. Even better, the online format allowed for easy sharing by students and parents across a variety of channels. SMC’s Director of Marketing, Lisa Ware, called the Digital Viewbook “stunning,” remarking that it was the best viewbook they’d ever produced.
Our next step was to help SMC communicate the details of their new bachelor’s program. Through focus groups and student research, we identified a knowledge gap: students didn’t really understand the model of the bachelor’s program, the Camak Core, at all. To combat this, we created an explainer video to tell the story of the Camak Core program from the perspective of the student. The video inspired prospective students to realize the value of the liberal arts education and motivating them to want to be a Spartan.
When it came to video marketing, we didn’t stop with the explainer video. To augment the campus visit experience, VizVid, our proprietary video marketing tool will give SMC students a Facbook-story-like video from their campus visit that they can share on social media. VizVid is integrated with SMC’s CRM and easily distributed to students after their visit, increasing the likelihood that they’ll apply and enroll.
