Oregon Classroom Social Contest Generates 200 Photos

2014 Social Media
Awards Submission:
Oregon Is Our
Classroom contest
Breaking Social
In the Trenches
Just „Cause
Go Local
House Party
Dream Team
ET Phone Home
The Unsung Hero

Entry Info
• Campaign: Oregon Is Our Classroom | May 2013
• Client: Portland State University
• Company: Portland State University (in-house team)
• Location: Portland, OR
• Project leads:
• Christian Aniciete, social media coordinator
• Julie Smith, director of marketing
• Peter Simon, videographer

Qualitative & Quantitative Objectives
• To launch the third and final phase of the Oregon is Our Classroom
marketing campaign by running an interactive user-generated
photo and video contest to show – not tell – how PSU students,
faculty, staff and alumni take their education out into the
community
• To generate 100 photo and/or video submissions
• To show how PSU integrates community engagement into its
curriculum, which in turn would stimulate campus pride and
create an even greater affinity with PSU

Target Audience
Current PSU Students: As more people, including PSU college students,
engage with social media through smartphones, they’re discovering that
taking a picture “on the go” using a high-resolution smartphone is much
more less tedious than typing out a status update on a two-inch keyboard.
PSU addresses this increasingly shifting habit of technology through a user-
generated contest that harnesses PSU students to share their own photos and
videos. PSU seniors specifically are given the opportunity to share their
experiences with their required Senior Capstone classes, which take students
out of the classroom and into the field.
Faculty/Staff/PSU Employees: As PSU faculty, staff and employees are
ever more pressed for time balancing everyday duties with remaining
engaged in the campus community, the need to get to the point quicker than
ever is ever more important. Visual content like pictures has become a short
form way of communicating lots of information quickly and succinctly and
this campaign offers this audience the opportunity to engage in this manner.
Many faculty and staff also directly take part in their students’ Senior
Capstone projects and this campaign gives them the chance to share their
experiences.

Target Audience
Alumni: 85,000 of PSU’s alumni live in the Portland metro area. Given this
fact, this campaign gives alumni the opportunity to engage and stay
connected with their alma mater. Pictures and videos received through this
contest also help evoke nostalgia among PSU alumni, including memories of
projects, classes and programs that took them outside the classroom.

Strategy
• Leveraging the rise in visual social media marketing, the contest strived to
bring the campaign video’s animated chair theme to life by inviting
students, faculty, staff, and alumni to show – not tell – their “learning
outside the classroom”
• Participants shared photos of their learning outside the classroom such as
an Intel internship or a creek restoration project through the contest
website
• To reward participation, the first 100 submissions received a free PSU
shirt and were automatically entered to win three grand prizes donated by
local businesses including a fine dining gift package at Stanford’s
Restaurant
• Upon receipt of each user-generated photo, PSU’s University
Communications gave each submission a creative, fun overlay in the shape
of the state of Oregon
• Once each photo received this creative treatment, each piece was uploaded
back on Facebook and Flickr for users to tag and share with their friends

Campaign Deliverables,
Tools & Tactics

Overview
• Discover your online presence
• Improve your story on external and
internal web sites
• Engage fans and garner user-generated
content
• Monitor and respond
• A campaign video centers on an animated chair moving out of the
classroom and into various locales in Oregon to illustrate how a PSU
education takes you out of the classroom and into the community
• The video can be found on youtube.com/portlandstateu and has generated
over 37,000 views to date
Campaign Video

Overview
internal web sites
content
• A short promo video was created in-house to announce the photo and
video contest
• The video can be found on youtube.com/portlandstateu and has generated
nearly 500 views to date
Promo Video

Overview
internal web sites
content
Email
• Two rounds of email campaigns
through Constant Contact were
developed
• Both rounds of email campaigns
went out to 30,000 PSU students
and 2,000+ PSU employees
• The email invited the PSU campus
community to participate in the
campaign

Overview
internal web sites
content
• A flyer and poster
promoting the contest
were designed in-house
• Over 500 flyers and
posters were printed and
distributed throughout the
PSU campus
• The flyers and posters
were also distributed
throughout local
restaurants and businesses
Flyers and posters

Overview
internal web sites
content
Social Media
• On May 1, a post announcing the
contest was made on the PSU
Facebook page
• Through a promoted post, the
announcement generated nearly
10,000 impressions, 41 likes, 3
comments and 3 shares
• As photos were submitted to the
contest, PSU Facebook
administrators uploaded them back
on the site

Overview
internal web sites
content
Social Media

Overview
internal web sites
content
Social Media
• Over 500 of these 11x17 posters were
created in-house and distributed
throughout the PSU campus
• The posters also were distributed
throughout the city of Portland including
restaurants and businesses
• The poster prominently called out the
Portland State of Mind contest

Results
• From May 1 – 29, the contest generated 200 submissions from
PSU students, employees and alumni, helping raise awareness about
the impact PSU students, faculty, staff and alumni make in Oregon
and beyond in places like Burma and Egypt
• The user-generated photos helped tell PSU’s story –
genuinely and authentically
• The campaign generated nearly 20,000 impressions on Facebook
and 900 views on Flickr
• The treated photos can be found on facebook.com/portlandstatefans
and flickr.com/photos/portland_state_university

Overview
internal web sites
content

Results: Photo Displays
PSU’s University Communications brought the 200+ photos to life by
creating and installing photo displays in two high-traffic areas of the
PSU campus including the Student Union building

Results: pdx.edu feature story
• A special website was created
featuring all 200+ user-
generated photos which were
uploaded via PSU’s Flickr site to
create and embed a visual
slideshow
• The feature went live on the
pdx.edu homepage which
garners millions of visitors
regularly

Results: PSU Magazine
• The PSU Alumni Magazine
published a two-page spread
highlighting some of the photos
received in its fall 2013 issue
• The Magazine has a 90,000
circulation, including numerous
movers and shakers in the
Portland area

Results: Anecdotal feedback
“Love it!”
“You guys made it to PSU‟s official [Facebook] page! Great! Keep it up!”
“Looks neat! I saw some karate movies in the 1970‟s that were fun!”
“I always thought that the Outdoor Program needed one of these „this is my
classroom‟ posters. Thanks to you, now we do. Congratulations!”
“That‟s me – so cool!”
“HAAA! Awesome PSU!”
“Loved this contest! Proud to say I went to PSU!”

Challenges
• Limited promotional budget
• Limited Facebook organic reach – making it difficult to
communicate to PSU’s Facebook fan base
• Technical difficulties (ie. dimensions of some of the photos did not
fit accordingly with the branded overlay template)
• Despite attempts of incorporating videos in the contest, most of
the submissions made were photos

More info about PSU’s social media
pdx.edu/connect/log
in-and-link-up

Oregon Classroom Social Contest Generates 200 Photos

Oregon Classroom Social Contest Generates 200 Photos

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