Powered by coffee and cookies, the Burke Advertising creative team met with the Rivier marketing team to brainstorm a new approach to promoting the college information session. How could we overcome the challenges of today’s economy, compete with hundreds of options that vie for the attention of adult students and bring people onto a college campus on a hot August evening?
Out of that creative meeting came a new campaign media mix and a unique incentive to make Rivier standout in this competitive market – giving away an Amazon Kindle digital reader, one of the hottest gadgets on the market today.
Higher Education campaigns traditionally shy away from prizes or giveaways and if you had a nickel for every time you’ve seen a company giving away an iPod in the last year, you would be able to retire. We wanted Rivier College to stand out. The Kindle provided us with the opportunity we were looking for. It’s a unique, in-demand giveaway that’s also relevant to higher education (there’s more than 150,000 textbooks available for the Kindle). With the creative in place, we developed an highly targeted media plan that reached across TV, radio, print, direct mail and online media.
We couldn’t have hoped for better results. The fall information session was filled past capacity – one of their best showings in recent memory and the enrollment numbers for the fall term exceeded Rivier’s target goals.