The importance of seizing your local market
When recruitment advertising programs are planned and implemented, many marketers consider the job done. After all, the messaging has been fine tuned to resonate with the intended audience; media has been selected to reach the right target audience at the moment of consideration. It’s time to wait for the inquiries to roll in, right?
An interesting BtoB site
NTH Consultan
ts is a Michigan-based engineering firm. It’s got a fun site, using a desk metaphor with “brochures” acting as pages. Does a good job of engaging the user and communicating the brand. Take two minutes and visit them: nthconsultants.com
Gap Years Make Good Business Sense
The value of a “gap year” may be hard to quantify in terms of increased retention and program persistence. However, creating a formalized gap year program has the potential to pay big dividends for colleges and universities.
Some schools report that, compared to their burned-out, stressed or homesick peers who go right into college, students who take a year “off” are more likely to be confident and successful in their first year, and more persistent in their degree program. And there are many other ways in which schools can benefit from the growing popularity of the gap year.
Although common in Europe, the gap year is finally catching on in the US, but there are still no reliable statistics about its prevalence here. The practice has been suppressed in the US because of the cost of secondary education, as well as the fact that, until recently, students had to stay in school or lose their parent’s health insurance coverage.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act now extends coverage of unmarried dependent children to their 26th birthday. This could open the door to significant growth in demand for gap year programs. The buzz is building, fueled by recent high-profile news coverage.
Not all colleges in the US allow accepted students to delay the start of their freshman year, and policies can be shaped by funding considerations. State schools, like the University of Washington, may require that gap year students reapply when they are ready to start or resume their studies. This is in stark contrast to the policies of schools like MIT, who say they will grant a deferral for almost any reason, and who passionately advocate taking a gap year.
Today, colleges that accommodate requests for a deferral normally allow less than 50 students to do so. If in future, as it is in Europe now, we could expect 10% of high school graduates to take a gap year, how could colleges and universities optimize the opportunity? Here are a few ideas:
- Differentiation: Gap year programs can be a great brand differentiation opportunity. Princeton University, for instance, has developed a structured gap year program that they hope to be able to offer to as many of 100 students a year. The program allows students to perform community service abroad, and may be the first of its kind among U.S. colleges and universities. Princeton has generated a lot of online buzz about this program already.
- Innovation: Shorter, more affordable programs can still give students a broadening, refreshing experience. Developing customized “hiatus” programs that are integrated with curriculum may also be a way to differentiate while assimilating students more deeply into the school community.
- Partnerships: Partnering with global companies to offer gap year internship programs represent a significant win-win opportunity for schools who want to increase their international appeal, students who want some practical experience in their future field, and companies that need to build their local skilled workforce.
- Social Communities: Encouraging gap year students to share their experiences is a terrific way of reinforcing a new and somewhat tenuous relationship. Schools may find that an online forum for gap year students to compare experiences, photos, and video will get a lot of attention from other students, parents, and alumni. Cornell University Career Services is ahead of the field in this respect. They devote a Facebook page entirely to the gap year topic; promoting events and highlighting student and alumni gap year experiences.
- Hybrid programs: Some schools and parents fear that gap year students will suffer from academic atrophy, particularly in science and math. With the prevalence on online education, who is to say that a gap year can’t include a couple of foundational courses to keep study habits honed?
- Events: When a student is pondering what they could do with a gap year, there are hundreds of dizzying options. It’s not unusual in the UK for universities to offer a Gap Year Fair to feature exciting or relevant programs offered by commercial companies, exchange organizations and educational foundations.
As reports about increased retention and campus enrichment surface, we predict that more schools will openly embrace the gap year. It’s just smart business for schools to consider ways to help students to be more ready to succeed in higher education. Those who are leading the way today actively guide students in how to make the time productive for their resumes and fulfilling for their adventurous souls. In doing so they’re deepening relationships and strengthening their brands.
Try Something New
Between yesterday and mid-September, fifty Brazilian families will randomly “win a day of Unilever sponsored family fun” and presumably will let us all know about the experience of being followed home and filmed by a Unilever promotions team.
Here’s the concept. Fifty boxes of Unilever’s Omo new stain-fighting detergent, spread amongst 35 Brazilian cities, will carry a GPS tracking chip. Thirty-five Omo promotional teams will be standing by to follow the signal to someone’s home, congratulate the winner and present them with a pocket-sized video camera and a certificate for their day of fun.
Reaction of the surprised winner will, of course, be filmed and posted online at experimentealgonovo.com.br (Portuguese for “try something new) — as will the photos of winners and their locations.
“Is your detergent stalking you?” asks Advertising Age of the new promotion called “Try Something New with Omo.” Omo and their agency, Bullet, are being criticized for privacy by some, commended for an innovative promotion by others.
Personally, I’m on the side of innovative promotion but only if the winners are given the option of not being posted or named on the website. I don’t believe there is even implied consent for use of image … all they did was buy laundry detergent.
Omo is Brazil’s top selling detergent, with a home penetration of 80%. It accounts for half of the detergent sales in the country. One report said that this campaign will cost about $1 million, start to finish, of Omo’s annual $23 million advertising budget. Although the product here is detergent, certainly if the promotion is successful, it will be moving in to all sorts of consumer goods.
So, what do you think … creepy and invasive? A promotional break-through that smartly leverage’s today’s technology? Or both?
deliver and deliver.com
I have been receiving the magazine called deliver a magazine for marketers, and I really enjoy it. The magazine offers marketing insights and tips on how we can really hit it home when it comes to our client/customers’ needs. It has articles that talk about different topics like, social media, direct mail and even the latest technology – all from the marketing point of view. Each issue touches upon different topics. As I started reading the current issue, I came across a line that really hits home for me personally, it stated “No matter what you choose to read, you’ll see that print is definitely not a goner. It’s evolving as new technologies emerge.” I highly recommend subscribing to either the printed magazine or the online version.
What Question Will You Ask?
Facebook’s question feature is in beta testing right now, but they promise they’ll launch it to the rest of us real soon. While the idea of being able to post a question to a social community is hardly new, I don’t believe the functionality has yet been experienced by such a large and active community as Facebook. Until a little of the shine has worn off the new toy, we’re potentially looking at millions of questions posed and answered each day. Crowd sourcing run amok.
So what question will you ask first?
I’m going to ask “Why can’t you eat Beefaroni every day?” since I can’t seem to come up with an answer my daughter deems credible.
