Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: Drexel University

Title of entry: Embracing the Pivot: Drexel University's Ambition Can't Wait Awareness Campaign

About this entry: For this past year’s Ambition Can’t Wait flight ($2.2 million in paid media), we sought to tell a deeper, student-driven story, while continuing to elevate awareness of the University and its co-op program. In order to position Drexel as a national leader in cooperative education while also functioning as an R1 research university — the media strategy hinged on placements in those mediums where discussions about the world changing are taking place.

Thus, media placements included high profile, national, contextual mediums (NPR, NYT Magazine) that aligned with key recruitment dates throughout the year between September and May 1, as well as with programmatic display (contextually targeting news aligned with the subject of each ad), as well as social media (Facebook/Instagram) and television (broadcast, cable and CTV in each market).

Target market (DMAs):
Philadelphia and
Washington DC
Central NJ
Long Island/West Chester, NY

Despite a 5% reduction in budget (following a 7% decrease in fiscal 2020), coupled with the constraints of setting up video shoots during COVID-19, this year’s flight utilized 16 different creative versions that were used in 190 separate executions across 13 separate media channels. In particular, the team was able to film three separate television commercials featuring Evan Ehlers (Sharing Excess), Mihir Shah (iBreast Exam), and Hannah Beier (Time Magazine cover).

This year’s run was a success (outcomes included in question 3).