Best of CASE District IV Award
 

Institution: Texas Christian University

Title of entry: 2022 Peer Campaign

About this entry: Every year, U.S. News & World Report publishes a much-hyped list of the top national universities, and, like it or not, those rankings influence the selection process for millions of college-bound students. The ranking’s “secret sauce” is a complex algorithm, but published methodology shows 20% comes from “expert opinion,” a two-year weighted average of ratings from top administrators— presidents, provosts and deans of admissions—who rank institution quality on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished).

To leadership’s dismay, TCU’s peer assessment score sat stagnant in the high 2’s for many years. To help improve the overall ranking, TCU Marketing formulated a strategy around 2018 to boost the peer assessment score via a national, multichannel campaign. Qualitative and quantitative research on brand perceptions and reputation drivers informed the content and channels. The strategy worked — in 2021, TCU broke the barrier with a 3.1.

The peer campaign is now four years in, but our 2022 effort was the most strategic and creative yet. Based on previous years’ performance, the team refined the media mix to maximize top-performing tactics, including higher ed-specific sponsored content and geotargeted social advertising. TCU Marketing also freshened up the design aesthetic to feature double-exposure photography instead of the illustration-style graphics of years past.

The end result was more than 104 million targeted impressions or more than double compared to the prior year, as well as improvements in cost per click, click-through rate — all at a significantly lower cost than in 2021.