university of montevallo

The University of Montevallo is a pillar of higher education in Alabama providing a small school experience with big opportunities. UM has earned top spots on numerous best colleges lists, including Most Beautiful Public College Campuses in America, Most Innovative Schools, and Best Value Schools. They offer a broad range of cultural, educational, and recreational activities—something for everyone, in fact—but they felt limited by their reputation as an “artsy” school. They approached us for help attracting more students with a more diverse set of career ambitions. We did that by implementing a strategic digital campaign that emphasized inclusivity.

Truth Seeking

When we peeled back the layers to get at the core of what influenced a high schooler’s decision of where to attend college (as accomplished by extensive market research), we realized there’s a ranking of priorities. At the top was a sense of comfort, connection, and belonging. For young people leaving their families for the first time, it’s crucial to find a place they feel confident they’ll fit in. That kernel of truth inspired our tagline because UM takes it one step farther: Not only do you fit in, but “You belong at Montevallo.” Further, we play off the double meaning of “acceptance” by telling potential applicants, “The Montevallo family is waiting to accept you!”

Who Else Matters?

With our creative execution, students discovered that no matter what interests or motivates them, Montevallo provides a path to pursue their passion. But students don’t make their decision alone. We had an important, secondary audience: parents. And they tend to be more concerned with the quality of the education, which is why we highlighted the accomplishments and accolades that demonstrate UM’s success.

Message-Audience Alignment

Developing a winning media strategy takes research, intuition gained from experience, and again, a whole lot of listening. It takes being in tune with the culture of your client and their target audiences. And it takes state-of-the-art digital capabilities to keep up with the ever-evolving technologies, policies, and best practices that govern digital and social media marketing. No problem—this is where we shine.

Our objectives were to generate awareness and engagement, and our impact was measureable by those metrics, but the way we did it was by tailoring our message to the people we wanted to connect with. Meaning that when we spoke to students vs. parents, we aligned our strategy with them and the platforms they’re using to craft personal messages that resonated. There was also a certain level of intimacy achieved by focusing on only one student at a time in static ads. Subliminally, it conveys the message that Montevallo doesn’t consider you one of many—you’re an individual and they value you for you.