2016 Western Illinois University-Quad Cities
Marketing
Annual Report
WIU-QC Marketing Goal
•Tell the story….
QC Marketing Initiatives and Campaigns
• Digital, Mobile, Web
• Broadcast
• Print
• Sponsorships
• Exterior Building Branding
• Internal Messaging/Promotion
Key Advertising Schedules
WIU-QC
• July/August
• October
• End of November
• Mid to end December
• January
• March (near midterms)
• May
Challenges
• Advertising is $$
• Measuring Outcomes
• Return on Investment (ROI)
• Effectiveness
• Awareness vs. Higher Enrollment
• Audience Confusion
• Other Barriers-Once in the door (or at web) do we offer what is
needed
It Costs How Much?
• 1 week at 6 p and 10p news in QC = $2200
• 1 full page print ad reduced rate remnant ad = $2200
• 1 month billboard = $3500
• 1 month digital = $1,500
• 2 weeks radio =$3000
• 1 month pre-roll ads $300-1,500
Challenges
• Digital, Mobile, Web-Few standard for mobile ads. Ensure your ad is well perceived.
•
Privacy or annoyance ads
• Broadcast-Expensive $ and not as easy to target to niche audiences, production costs
• Print-Broad demo, takes long to create print ad, audience correlation to target
• Sponsorships-Difficult to track impact and response
• Exterior Building Branding-audience perception
• Internal Messaging/Promotion-clutter vs. viable way to receive information
Advantages
• Digital, Mobile, Web-Cost and immediacy of ad-cost
increases the more specific your audience
• Broadcast-We have good videos!
• Print-Older demo who ‘clip and share’ have $
• Sponsorships-low cost, easy production
• Exterior Building Branding-semi permanent
• Internal Messaging/Promotion-Easily updated
Process changes in QC Marketing
• All ads, campaigns, promotions, collateral must be approved by more members
of WIU Administration
• QC Marketing Advisory Group has disbanded
• All design, production, ad/publication creation occurs in University Relations
• QC Budget was dramatically reduced this FY
• News releases come from a centralized location
Roll with the Changes
Audiences
• High School Seniors {Juniors}
• Parents of students going to college
• Non “traditional”- Working female with some college experience living in QC’s 60%
• Graduate students – 28-45 yr old working adults
• Military students
• Community Partners and supporters-anyone who wants to see us succeed
Marketing to the high school
student/parent
Web {and Sponsorship}
June, July, August-2015 *
*Bonus months through Dec. 15
• ICAN helped more than 600,000 Iowa students, parents and education
professionals prepare for college last year
• Over 32,000 unique page visits from residents in Iowa and Illinois
•
•
Iowans from 49 different counties
Majority from Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Johnston, Iowa City, Waterloo, Cedar Falls,
Dubuque, Davenport and Bettendorf
• Results
What can we learn?
• High bounce rates
• Number of visitors who leave your page and
site
• Increasing rate can mean your page is
boring, complicated, text heavy, not
pleasing
• Review bounce rates often
• Be flexible with redesign
More terms and things to learn
• Page views-each time a page is loaded, same visit, refreshed
• Unique page views- doesn’t count the same viewer refreshing browser; new
users
• Average time on the page- could be an indicator that visitors are staying to
read or “bouncing” and leaving if the don’t see the information they want or are
not enticed
• % Exits- The exit rate does not take into consideration how many pages the
visitor looked at. It only looks at the exits compared to the total visits.
Viewer may have looked at other pages before leaving the site.
Marketing in the classrooms
• Rivermont Collegiate
•
banners
• Rock Island High School and more
•
Banners, pencils, give away items
•
Initiative to have a presence in as many classrooms as
we can in the QC and surrounding areas.
• Direct Mail
•
•
Summer initiative
Sent to homes of all eligible QC
high school juniors/seniors
• Rock Island Community School District
•
Spring newsletter
Print
Rationale
• In support of community partners
• College Guide puts us among our target audience
Broadcast
• Video
• Reaches a more general audience, but still reaches parents and our audience
• When we align with educational or military sub-campaigns we reach a more
specialized audience
Sub-campaigns
• WQAD
• 20-:30 spots 2/3 during peak times-Oct. 15, March, Jan., August 2016
•
20-:30 commercials on Antenna TV 8-2 and My TV 8-3
• “The Pledge”- August/September 2015
• My Favorite Teacher-March 2016
• Holiday and Military Greetings 2015-Nov. Dec
• Live Full Newscasts-pre-roll-desk top-July 2015-July2016
• Desk top ‘Native’ articles on WIU related topics
“The Pledge”-WQAD
“It All Begins Here”
“It All Begins Here…v2”
New Pre-roll-WQAD
Holiday/Military Greeting-WQAD
Sub-campaigns
• KWQC
• School Closings page- Nov 2015-Mar 2016
•
Includes mobile, desktop, web
• 5-6 a morning news January broadcast commercial
•
Possibly a greater time for inclement weather and coincides with high spring registration
School Closings Page
Sub-campaigns
• CBS4
• Military/Holiday Greeting-Nov-Dec 2015
• Mentoring Awareness Month-January
CBS4
Holiday and Military Greetings
CBS4 “Mentoring Month”
WQPT
• Full length :30 commercials
• “Media partner of Western Illinois University-Quad Cities” mentions
• Recruitment spots is $84,900 and the value for the IDs are $444,500.
“It All Begins Here :30
• Broadcast-Television
•
5-6a news-KWQC-Jan
16
•
•
Morning news-WQAD,
•
WXLP-pre-rolls on
“Listen Live”
•
•
YouTube pre-rolls
WQAD web news prerolls
WQPT
Combined “Two Campuses” commercial
• Aired during “The Voice” finale
• December 2015
“Two Campuses…One University”
Townsquare Media
• Company that owns local radio-formerly Cumulus
• 3rd Largest owner of radio stations in the US
• Digital marketing company
Broadcast-radio
• B-100
•
Today’s hits
• 97X
•
•
•
Appeals to 18-24 year olds
Listeners include parents of high school aged potential students
Classic rock
•
•
•
Appeals to 24-36 year old, primarily male audience
Listeners include parents of high school aged potential students
Potential students looking to finish a degree
Broadcast-radio
• 104.9-The Hawk Country
•
•
New country hits
Audience includes 24-45 year olds
•
•
Reaching prospective students who want to finish or advance a degree
Parents of high school aged students
Rationale
• More local talent vs. ‘voice-tracked’ or syndicated programs from out of market
• Generally per commercial price is less than competitors
• Top rated company for digital marketing solutions
• Positive relationship with vendor which yields to more added value
Digital, Mobile and Web
•WQAD
•Townsquare Media
• Radio Pup app
•KWQC
Digital
• Targeted to:
•
•
•
Age
17-24, 24-32, parents of high school aged students and 28+
Geographical area
•
•
Search history
•
•
Within 60 mi of WIU-QC
“College, MBA, Higher education” up to 15 terms to look for
Geo Fencing
•
Within 1 mile of
• Other schools, KONE, Deere, etc. using phone enabled GPS
•
Advanced Audience
•
Search job titles, level of education, etc.
• Campaign
• High recruiting/registration times for us
• August, October, January
• Campaign results increased each month
• Achieved nearly 3 x the national average
•{more on that in a moment!}
• Highlights
• Most effective ads and engagements occur with an audience
using tablets
• Pre-rolls to “Listen Live” and YouTube
• One out of 4 are watching our commercial to it’s completion
•
10 % of viewers click the ad to go to our webpage or come
back to our site which is 3 x the national average
• Why?
• We’re using the right ad
• Targeting the right audience
• …on the right platform {i.e. tablet or mobile phone}
Mobile, Digital, Desktop sites
…plus 3.5 million more websites
• Among top 30 buying exchanges-larger demand size platform/buying desk and
doesn’t resell ads
• 30 billion impressions per day
• 95% brand safety- 20x that of other exchanges
•
Ensures your ad won’t appear on “inappropriate” sites
Click
throughs”
“Impressions”
“Clicks”
“Viewthroughs”
“Retargeting”
“
• Benefits
• We get a lot of potential
students watching our videos
• Less expensive than broadcast
• Challenges
• “Annoyance ads”
• Option to click out of ad in :03
sec
• Can’t control which YouTube
videos being watched
• Once visitor clicks ad to our
site it’s tougher to know why
visitor leaves and whether the
visitor was satisfied with the
web page visit
Click on this
Or this
“Native” WIU-QC related
topics that can change
monthly.
Or this
•You go here:
•
•
•
•
Apply
Watch the video
Look at viewbook
Connect with QC
Challenges
• Where are visitors going once they land on this page?
• Analytics tell us whether they use top navigation which
•
•
includes Macomb information
How long they stay on our page
What other links are visitors choosing?
• The key to success
• Find out where visitors to
our page are going.
• How long are they staying
on the page.
• What are the needs of the
visitor based on how they
interact with pages.
• Applications?
Adapt to data and feedback
• Analyzing data and trends can help us redesign and reassess
• Calculated changes help
• Ensuring other entities aren’t affecting analytics/data can give us truer results
• Gather more data from focus groups, research and change
• Make the changes we are able
Sponsorships
• Iowa College Access Network-web sponsor
• Girl Scouts of the Mississippi Valley-One Tough Cookie race
• Children’s Therapy Center-race
• QC River Bandits-Military Appreciation Night-hat give away-scholarships
• JA
• Girls in Engineering
• Bridge Building Event
Logos, documents, design
Other University Messages
• Phone greetings
• Inclement Weather
• Outdoor digital signs
• Plasma and kiosk material
Student Groups
• Event promotions
• Promotional items/logo-give
away items
In class projects
• WIU-QC Marketing class
• Event promotions
• News releases
• Logo use
Advisor
•Counseling
•CACREP
video
Campus Promotions
• News releases
• Media management
• Flyers, digital signs, plasma, web
Challenges
• Dateline-Macomb,
Moline or
Macomb/Moline
• Collaborative initiative
inclusion
Initiatives…QC too?
Initiatives
• Mobile app
• Virtual Tour
• Walking Tour
• Advertising campaigns in
QC metro
Social Media
• Content provider manger
• Posts and responds to messages/inquiries
•
•
•
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Media Manager
• Sets up interviews for media requests
• Manages scheduled shoots
• Manages impromptu interviews
• Arranges for students and spaces
• Researches inquiries
• Sends Media Advisories
• Shares media stories on social media and with list serve/supervisors
Building/External Marketing
• Alumagraphics
• Window Perforations
• Wayfinding
• Branding
• Displays
Flyers, signs, plasma, digital, web….
Photo shoots
• Identify need
• Identify model
• Schedule
• Execute
• Include in
Photo shoots
Look book, brochures, view book, planner….
• Create content
• Select photos
• Select elements
• Proof, proof, proof
• Seek administrative approvals
Folder and planner
Linkages brochure
Look book
Look book
Campus Photography or camera keeper
WIU-QC Development
• Holiday cards
• Videos
• Direct mail
• Campaign letters
•
Testimonials, photos
Campus Events
Hosting Events and Promoting
Web
wiu.edu/qc
• Featured Leathernecks
• Spotlights
• Events
• News releases
• Specialty pages
Promotional Items and Logo
More to do…
More to do…
Mobile app, Virtual Tour, Walking Tour
More Program Specific Messaging for Colleges
Keep Telling the Story
•Questions?