CASE STUDY
Pikes Peak State College (PPSC)
AdPro employees and contractors Camille Blakely, Kimberly Way, and Mary Barker worked on the PPCC account from 2010 through 2019 while employed at Blakely + Company. We worked on every aspect of PPCC’s recruitment marketing, including efforts to target traditional, non-traditional, graduate, Hispanic and military students. Since 2019, Kimberly Way has continued to work with PPCC on Hispanic marketing campaigns. In 2021, she was awarded the traditional media contract and currently focuses on enrollment and Hispanic efforts for PPSC.
Target Audience
Traditional Students:
- Enrolling right after High School
- Typically 17 to 19-years-old
- Higher percentage from lower socioeconomic districts
Non-traditional students:
- Older than traditional students
- Target is typically 25 to 39-year-olds, but they do have students in their fifties
Transfer Students:
- Students looking to transfer to a four-year school after PPCC
- Typically a subset of traditional or nontraditional students
Military Students:
- Included active duty
- Recently transitioned veterans
- Family members and are typically 25 to 34-years-olds
Marketing Approach
After detailing specific demographics and lifestyles of potential students utilizing our audience research tools, combined with historical data of student populations, we looked at their media usage habits and how they connected with media in a typical day. Then, we considered how to balance that information with our creative strategy and budget.
The main factor that came into play with PPCC was the need to prioritize audiences. With the widely diverse student populations, the budget was not large enough to reach all of them at optimum levels. In our early years of working with PPCC, the focus was more on older students as they made up a larger portion of the student population, and overall enrollment numbers were starting to decline as the economy became stronger.
We allocated budget to reaching traditional students, but they were the secondary target of media buying efforts. With that prioritization of demographics audiences in the early years, we primarily used radio and print advertising, along with outdoor billboards for broader awareness. The strategy was to have an umbrella awareness effort with vertical executions against niche audiences.
A portion of the radio budget was used to reach traditional students, as was movie theater advertising during high use periods (summer and holidays). During this period there was a shift to targeting traditional students more, so we changed the media mix to reflect that. We dramatically reduced print advertising and significantly increased digital advertising and direct mail to address this shift. We still used radio and outdoor advertising for broader market reach, including digital to reach the non-traditional student target.
Marketing Approach
After detailing specific demographics and lifestyles of potential students utilizing our audience research tools, combined with historical data of student populations, we looked at their media usage habits and how they connected with media in a typical day. Then, we considered how to balance that information with our creative strategy and budget.
The main factor that came into play with PPCC was the need to prioritize audiences. With the widely diverse student populations, the budget was not large enough to reach all of them at optimum levels. In our early years of working with PPCC, the focus was more on older students as they made up a larger portion of the student population, and overall enrollment numbers were starting to decline as the economy became stronger.
We allocated budget to reaching traditional students, but they were the secondary target of media buying efforts. With that prioritization of demographics audiences in the early years, we primarily used radio and print advertising, along with outdoor billboards for broader awareness. The strategy was to have an umbrella awareness effort with vertical executions against niche audiences.
A portion of the radio budget was used to reach traditional students, as was movie theater advertising during high use periods (summer and holidays). During this period there was a shift to targeting traditional students more, so we changed the media mix to reflect that. We dramatically reduced print advertising and significantly increased digital advertising and direct mail to address this shift. We still used radio and outdoor advertising for broader market reach, including digital to reach the non-traditional student target.
CASE STUDY
Pikes Peak State College (PPSC)
AdPro employees and contractors Camille Blakely, Kimberly Way, and Mary Barker worked on the PPCC account from 2010 through 2019 while employed at Blakely + Company. We worked on every aspect of PPCC’s recruitment marketing, including efforts to target traditional, non-traditional, graduate, Hispanic and military students. Since 2019, Kimberly Way has continued to work with PPCC on Hispanic marketing campaigns. In 2021, she was awarded the traditional media contract and currently focuses on enrollment and Hispanic efforts for PPSC.
Target Audience
Traditional Students:
- Enrolling right after High School
- Typically 17 to 19-years-old
- Higher percentage from lower socioeconomic districts
Non-traditional students:
- Older than traditional students
- Target is typically 25 to 39-year-olds, but they do have students in their fifties
Transfer Students:
- Students looking to transfer to a four-year school after PPCC
- typically a subset of traditional or nontraditional students
Military Students:
- Included active duty
- Recently transitioned veterans
- Family members and are typically 25 to 34-years-olds
Results
Enrollment in community colleges is more closely tied to the economy than in a four-year school. In Colorado, enrollment in community colleges peaked in 2010 and then declined slowly afterwards and continues to do so. During the time Blakely worked with PPCC, the headcount decreased by 15.3% and the statewide headcount decreased by 16.7%. FTE's declined by 16.6% for PPCC and 20.2% statewide. While our efforts for PPCC didn't increase enrollment, we outperformed statewide results compared to all but one of the individual colleges in Colorado. Since COVID decimated enrollment figures in recent years, PPCC has managed to continue to outperform the overall national trends for community colleges. Additionally, they have increased the percentage of Hispanic enrollment year over year with the Hispanic marketing that continued since 2017 as the following graph details.
Strategy drives everything we do at AdPro. Our team members are closely aligned, working diligently together to help our clients exceed their objectives. Their wins are our wins.
- Camille Blakely, President – AdPro