The University of Tennessee, Knoxville is Tennessee’s flagship land-grant university, dedicated to community investment, academic excellence, and groundbreaking research.
Staying ahead of a national enrollment crisis takes more than a campaign. It takes answers. When the University of Tennessee, Knoxville came to us, we delivered both. Starting with deep research that shaped university-wide strategy and ending with a targeted advertising campaign that drove nearly 350% application growth, this was research and advertising working together exactly as they should.
The Challenge
Getting Ahead of a National Problem
Enrollment was declining across the country, driven by shifting population trends and growing skepticism about the value of a college degree. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville wasn’t waiting for the problem to arrive. They wanted to understand how their own key audiences perceived a UT degree before the national trend hit home and use that insight to build a sharper, more targeted communications and media strategy.
The Work
Turning Research Into Direction
We launched a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative research program to give UT a deeper understanding of how key demographics felt about the university’s reputation, its graduates and its relevance. A statewide survey established the broad landscape, while follow-up focus groups zeroed in on the trends that mattered most. Deliverables included dynamic reports with custom searchable dashboards, video analysis and written narratives designed to be put to immediate use.
The findings went straight to the top, directly influencing the Chancellor’s marketing and strategic communications plan and continuing to shape university marketing decisions today.
The research also unlocked opportunity at the college level. UT’s Haslam College of Business used the insights to fuel a targeted digital campaign for its Master of Science in Business Analytics program, reaching young professionals across Tennessee and surrounding markets on Instagram, Twitter and Google Search.
The results
The Data Delivered.
At the conclusion of the campaign, applications had grown by nearly 350%.
350% Application Growth
This is a slideshow of images and captions. Use the arrows following the image section of the slideshow to navigate through the slides.
