ISU Launches Bold New Campaign
Over the course of a year, we worked shoulder to shoulder with the team at Indiana State University who had trusted us to build the digital foundation for their ambitious new $100 million capital campaign. We were charged with creating a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, including a web site, video storytelling components and launch collateral to help get this bold initiative off the ground.
Building an Online Brand Foundation
During our discovery phase, we spent time on campus working closely with the leadership team, as well as filming 10+ hours of interviews with nearly 50 ISU alum, students, faculty, staff and board members. That core learning and asset collection served as the foundation for our on-going digital strategy through web, social and paid campaigns to drive traffic and aid in the successful completion of the University’s overall fundraising goal.
We took some big swings in illustration and iconography, dug deep into strategic web site architecture, design and development, and shot a library of interview videos and hype pieces to educate and inspire alumni from all walks of life. Oh, and we made some good friends along the way. Visit besoboldisu.com and experience a BOLD Sycamore future! Go Blue!
OUR PROMOTIONAL DIGITAL STRATEGY
Our Facebook & Instagram paid advertising campaign was designed and optimized to DRIVE TRAFFIC, with a view toward transitioning visitors into contributors. The campaign concept featured before/after imagery to remind our audiences about how much has changed on campus, and how this BOLD campaign will continue to transform ISU and student lives for generations to follow. With a mix of both video and image ads, and compelling messaging, the campaign was built to drive site clicks. Our strategy included a suite of digital ads specially designed for newsfeed, story, and reel formats. In the first six days of our paid campaign, we were able to deliver 83k impressions, reach 23k people, and drive some serious traffic to our new site. All in time for homecoming week shenanigans!
Social Media Support
Our promotional strategy also included a library of social posts and short videos to help engage audiences and drive site traffic. Based on the Be So Bold campaign key priorities and potential alumni interests, we developed several categories of post-types within the social library that our client partners could integrate into their content and post calendar.
Everything lead back to the University’s mission driven vision we tried to capture in our North Star video:
Bold Campaign Success
The two-month campaign experienced click-thru and engagement rates that were both off the charts! In eight weeks, we reached almost 60K potential donors, and generated 7,296 site visits — with a staggering 9.15% engagement rate. “They liked us, they really liked us!”
