Opportunities Aren’t Given They’re Made
We’ve all seen the campaign that look school pride to a new level and on Wednesday, November 28th the amazingly talented team from Neiman advertising agency ventured to North Philadelphia to give us a behind the scenes look at how they did it. First to speak was David Burden the Senior Strategic Planner on the Temple University account. He explained how Temple was way below its competitors when it came to dollars spent on advertising. Temple was “outspend and outshouted” and the higher education market is a “sea of sameness” as Burden put it.He went on to discus the marketing objectives based on the RFP from Temple University.
Marketing Objectives
1. Develop a holistic brand platform and messaging strategy
– Create an engaging advertising and communication concept
> Provide a “halo” while also supporting strategic and tactical admissions and advancements needs
> Refine brand identity and implement and steward tighter graphic standards
2. Engage audiences to foster interest, affinity and advocacy
– Encourage conversations and participation
3. Fully leverage BIG EAST media opportunity
– The launchpad for sustained advertising and communication activities targeting external audience
– Increase awareness of Temple among new audiences
At first when Neiman was investigating Temple University they heard a lot of the same words including the most famous, “diversity”. Burden said they wanted to “reframe diversity as individuality, celebrating the unique tapestry that is woven at Temple”. They also took the idea of North Philadelphia as the location of Temple and reframed it as the real world. Temple’s Brand Platform was then born: The real world. Most schools talk about it, teach about it, Temple lives it. From here they decided on media such as TV, OOH, print, events, and digital.
Chris Reif took over from there and discussed the power behind the creative in the campaign. He explained the 24 page admissions view book fused with real imagery, unique typography, and an amazing icon system done by Hillary Sedgwick. Then he described the microsite, templemade.com which builds in all the components of the campaign and provides a real look through students eyes. Another piece done for the campaign was a print ad in Philly Mag with the copy, “Opportunities aren’t given they’re made.” An interesting aspect of the campaign was that a lot of the places they went to for assistance with components all had Temple Alumni employed there so the campaign really was in all aspects Temple Made. From Blue for production and an alumni in New York helping with the music for the TV commercial and Awesome Dudes screen printing, we got to see real Temple Alumni putting their education to work. Lastly came the Temple Made Live event on September 27, 2012 at the Bell Tower where guerrilla projections on the library and the Bell Tower made the crowd chant T-U with true Temple pride.
Finally it came time to discus the success metrics of this amazing campaign. Temple experienced a 63% increase on Twitter, 4,000+ hashtags of #TempleMade on Instagram, and 5,000+ #TempleMade tweets. During the Temple Made Live event alone there were 2,500 tweets during the 3 hour event causing it to trend over #Phillies. On Facebook they recorded a 198% increase in the daily reach.
Clearly the numbers are a great way to show how successful the Temple Made campaign has become but the true measure is seeing the pride in students when they repeat, “Self Made. Philly Made. Temple Made.”
Photo Credit @rbrandenberg
