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Real questions from real students serve as basis for IU's new recruitment campaign
Nov. 20, 2000
EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: The commercial may be viewed on the Web at http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/spots00/questions.mov. QuickTime 4.0 or better is required. Media organizations can request a videotape of the commercial by calling 812-855-3911.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- What questions do young people have when they enter a new phase of their lives, such as when they go to college? What questions do they hope to answer?
Those questions, common to many of us as well as to university students, served as the basis for a new advertising campaign produced by and for Indiana University.
The university will spend about $625,000 to create and air the commercials -- about 20 percent less than it spent last year on its advertising campaign, which helped generate record enrollments this fall at three of its eight campuses and enrollment increases at four other IU campuses. They are the initial component of IU's next integrated marketing initiative.
"The theme is based on the concept that students come to a university to seek knowledge and answer questions," said Sandra Conn, IU assistant vice president for public affairs and government relations and the campaign's creative director.
"What we did was interview 40 IU students and ask them what they really wanted to learn while pursuing their studies here," Conn said. "Then we visited the places where these students sought that knowledge, including a music practice room, a library, a child care center, a high tech computer lab, and a swimming pool where IU faculty and students study the factors that contribute to improved athletic performance.
"Compared with most commercials, the 30-second ad cost relatively little to produce. While a Chicago firm, BBDS Communications, was involved, there were no actors to pay, and much of the creative and technical input was provided by university professionals. The ad itself cost $109,000 to produce. That may sound like a lot, but actually it was a pretty good value. Estimated normal costs for a similar ad would have been about $180,000."
Three vendors involved with the project provided their services at cost. BBDS account executive Dennis Gillespie has ties to IU, having previously been an advertising professor in the IU School of Journalism for several years. BBDS donated his time to the project.
BBDS was chosen from among 26 ad firms who responded to a request for proposals put out by the university. The group included a number of firms from Indiana, but several of those companies had to bow out because they represented other universities and couldn't handle competing clients.
The ad features a fast-paced sequence of students engaged in research activities on campus while different students pose their real questions, such as "What does the human genome look like?"; "How do you take a company public?"; and "Can you really teach creativity?" It highlights academic excellence found at all eight IU campuses.
IU has conducted regular advertising campaigns since 1997. Prior to that, the university kept a generic ad on hand to run during sporting events. The campaign's aim is twofold: to reach prospective students and parents, and to explain the university's value to the general public.
"Our integrated marketing efforts have served the university very well in the last five years," said Christopher Simpson, IU vice president for public affairs and government relations. "When we began television advertising, few other colleges and universities in Indiana were using this medium. Now most schools are using television ads as part of their outreach.
"To distinguish ourselves from the clutter on TV, we wanted to produce a very high quality ad that is far superior in tone and technique to anything we have done before," Simpson added. "We believe we have hit that most lofty goal."
Indianapolis-based Perkins-Nichols Media has purchased $513,000 worth of television time on stations statewide and in Chicago and Louisville to broadcast the campaign between now and mid-January. Plans also call for another round of advertising in June and July, when the majority of students who might be considering IUPUI or a regional campus decide to attend college and apply for admission.
That's about 25 percent less than the university spent for air time last year.
"We know that our other ads have been successful. We have had steady increases in enrollment since we began advertising three years ago," Conn said. "Our previous ad campaigns raised the university's visibility and image. This latest commercial reinforces the foundation that we've laid."
(Susan Dillman, 812-855-0850, sdillman@indiana.edu)