Unity College, an environmental college in Maine, sought to launch a pilot program in Austin to recruit students for their new online undergraduate and graduate programs. The program would also function as a way to test audiences, messaging, and media channels for future outreach models.

Since Austinites were relatively unfamiliar with the Unity brand, we knew we needed to approach their introduction in a way that highlighted what they already had in common: a love for the natural world. We developed a multi-channel strategy that blended the brand-building power of out-of-home and radio with the activation of digital channels—including display, social, and paid search—and we did it using language and imagery the local audience would recognize as their own.

Qualified prospects were targeted in several ways. We served ads on mobile apps related to the outdoors such as Plantsnap and Alltrails, and on sites that were contextually related to environmental issues. We also retargeted viewers of ads who had clicked through, while assuring frequency caps were in place to avoid ad fatigue.

Paid search served well for low-funnel lead-capture; however, the display campaign outperformed even paid search and drove more form fills than any other channel. Within four months they received 112 applications. The on-campus program also received several new students as a result of our awareness efforts in Austin.