Challenge St. Bonaventure University was aiming to meet their annual goal of enrolled undergraduate freshmen. They wanted to be able to reach prospective high school juniors and seniors along with their parents/influencers to encourage them to visit, apply and enroll in their four-year undergraduate program. It was important for St. Bonaventure to be able to express their core values rooted in nurturing compassion, seeking wisdom and building integrity, and to simply articulate the feeling of being on campus that’s like no other.
St. Bonaventure felt strongly that when they got students and their families to visit campus, they were able to make a lasting impact with an individualized experience geared toward their interests – all surrounded by a welcoming and caring community. Promoting visits early in the college decision making process was vital to increasing their number of applications and ultimately admissions.
Solution PHG worked with St. Bonaventure to create a digital media campaign that included a number of social media platforms as well as the creation of a new campaign landing page where the ads would drive to, encouraging students to visit, apply and enroll. The creative not only highlighted these key calls-to-action, but also brought in messaging around affordability, division 1 athletics, their core Franciscan values, academic support and student outcomes tied to St. Bonaventure. Everything from a messaging and creative standpoint was rooted in the theme, “Head Meets Heart” – showing that the decision to become a Bonnie checks all the boxes, both practical and emotional.
PHG divided the campaign into three phases throughout the year to support awareness, consideration and yield within the primary and secondary markets defined by St. Bonaventure.
Throughout the 2021/2022 digital media campaign, there was a 135% increase in impressions, 50% increase in clicks, and 24% increase in conversions on the landing page YoY
“Our success was guided by our strong strategic enrollment plan, which was critical in the development of our marketing, communication and recruitment plans,” said Megan Perkins, associate vice president for Enrollment and director of Admissions. “Our Admissions team and the Marketing and Communications staff played key roles in the implementation and execution of many new or enhanced recruitment and programming strategies, tactics and initiatives.”