Getting students to pay attention to crisis communications - whatever it takes!

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One of the hardest things to do is to create an authentic marketing message that appeals to students. As you know, students can see through fluff and nonsense with x-ray vision. In this presentation, I share the experiences of the UC Berkeley team tasked with getting students to participate in our campus wide emergency alerts system - WarnMe. We used jokes that would appeal to juveniles (or so we thought), bad language that would help us blend in (or so we thought) and even sex talk that would drive the point home (or so we thought). Take an exciting, laugh a minute journey through the creation, destruction, creation, destruction and third life of a legendary marketing campaign (or so we think). This presentation communicates the need to be flexible and to rethink assumptions when creating messaging targeted at students. We also share our strategies for pre-testing and fine-tuning the creative work and how we worked with campus partners to extend our reach. Naturally, all this was done with a “higher ed” budget. (This presentation was made at EduWeb 2013 by Ram Kapoor, Executive Director, Marketing & Digital Communications, University of California, Berkeley.)

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JUVENILE JOKES, BAD LANGUAGE, SEX TALK…ANY STUDENTS IN THE HOUSE?Ram KapoorExecutive Director, Marketing & Digital Communications

#HigherEdMarketing

@heyram

Eduweb Special: 2 for 1Two student marketing campaigns1. WarnMe – awareness / behavior change2. Sproul Plaza –engagement platform

Let’s talk aboutEMERGENCIES

EMERGENCIES can happen anywhere

EMERGENCIES can happen anytime

EMERGENCIES can happen to anyone

WarnMe

Campus emergency alert system36,000 students8,000 faculty & staffDefault: berkeley.edu email alert (opt-out)Alert options: Text, phone, home email

Challange

Getting students to log in to the WarnMe system and update their alert preferences to text

Step 1: LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION

Step 1: LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION

Dumb Ways to Die –Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw

Dumb Ways to Die – Case Study video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxZ_ZznO2ek

WHY HAS IT PROVED SO POPULAR?

WHY HAS IT PROVED SO POPULAR?

"It’s different. It’s cute as hell and it gets stuck in your head.”

“Cute, a bit silly, happy melody, soft colors, all were attributes that made people feel good while they engaged with the campaign.”

THE ULTIMATE PROOF!

Dumb Ways to Die – Teens React video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5H7FY_DSWo

Step 2:KNOWING WHAT YOU DON’T WANT

Step 3:GETTING INTO THE MINDS OF

YOUNG ADULTS

EEW!!!

WHAT DO YOUNG ADULTS LIKE?

source: xkcd.com

source: 4gifs.com

Red Vs Blue video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag4DDjwBwNM

Harlem Shake – UGA men’s video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkNrSpqUr-E

BLINDING INSIGHT # 1:

“HUMOR”

CREATIVE IDEA

Q - WHEN ARE EMERGENCIES FUNNY?

CREATIVE IDEA

Q - WHEN ARE EMERGENCIES FUNNY?

A – WHEN THEY AREN’T WARN ME EMERGENCIES

100 logins / day

Hey, we got a few responses!

Illustration style?

Homework, really???

WHAT DO YOUNG ADULTS REALLY LIKE?

Philip Defranco show video link: http://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil?feature=watch

BLINDING INSIGHT # 2:

“STRAIGHT TALK”

CREATIVE IDEA

WE’VE DONE ALL WE CAN.

NOW IT’S UP TO YOU.

ARE YOU…

ARE YOU…

300 logins / day

3x response rate

Building supervisor email

Challenge: Can we reach more students?

WHAT DO YOUNG ADULTS REALLY, REALLY LIKE?

BLINDING INSIGHT # 3:“(HINT: IT’S A

THREE LETTER WORD)”

®

SSHHHH!

CREATIVE IDEA

A CONDOM CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE.

SO CAN A TEXT ALERT.

700 logins / day

Take a break, guys!

TOP TIPS

1. BE UNEXPECTED

2. BE DIRECT

3. BE RELEVANT

4. BE EVERYWHERE

5. BE FLEXIBLE

xkcd.com

Eduweb Special: Two for the price of one Two marketing campaigns1. WarnMe – Student awareness & action2. Sproul Plaza – Student engagement platform

SPROUL PLAZA

FACEBOOK APP

OBJECTIVEUtilize social media to create two-way dialogue on selected questions and topicsEngage with students where they hang outDrive the agenda and participation for future face-to-face forums

First test: The Budget discussion

PHASE ONE BUILD INTEREST / PARTICIPATIONProfile picture highlighting the Sproul Plaza App Incentives for participation

PHASE TWO PROVIDE STIMULUSBudget overview video byVice Chancellor John WiltonSubmission box for questions

Sproul Plaza kickoff video link: John Wilton, Vice Chancellor, gives a Budget 101 talk https://www.youtube.com/watchv=k5a19gjVtTs&feature=player_embedded

PHASE THREE QUESTIONS AND VOTESThe questions roll in… and get voted on by other participants

PHASE THREE QUESTIONS AND VOTESParticipants vote for their favorite questionsSome engaged users respond to others’ questions

PHASE FOUR THE WINNING QUESTIONSThe top 3 winners get $100 gift cardsAll top questions (and more) are submitted to the VC for answers

PHASE FIVE THE ANSWERSPersonal video responses to the top questions posted by VC John Wilton (in 5 days)

STEP SIX THE DIALOG CONTINUES…Continuing engagement after the first round of answers.Inputs for round two / other forums

METRICS

First test of engagement platform

Ready for next level of engagement with more topics

and other university departments

861 users.27 questions.40 total comments.175 total votes.

Total Video Views (6 videos) 1,990

Taking the app out of facebook

Finding administrators who want to engage this form of highly visible dialog

Dedicated video and editorial team

xkcd.com

Feedback? Questions? Email ram.kapoor@berkeley.edu or tweet / dm @heyram

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