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.)

1. JUVENILE JOKES,
BAD LANGUAGE,
SEX TALK…
ANY STUDENTS IN
THE HOUSE?
Ram Kapoor
Executive Director, Marketing & Digital Communications
#HigherEdMarketing @heyram

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

3. Let’s talk about
EMERGENCIES

4. EMERGENCIES can happen anywhere

5. EMERGENCIES can happen anytime

6. EMERGENCIES can happen to anyone

8. WarnMe
Campus emergency alert system
36,000 students
8,000 faculty & staff
Default: berkeley.edu email alert (opt-out)
Alert options: Text, phone, home email

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

13. Step 1:
LOOKING FOR
INSPIRATION

14. Step 1:
LOOKING FOR
INSPIRATION

16. Dumb Ways to Die –
Video link:
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0j
w

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

18. WHY HAS IT PROVED SO POPULAR?

19. 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.”

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

21. Step 2:
KNOWING WHAT
YOU DON’T WANT

24. Step 3:
GETTING INTO
THE MINDS OF
YOUNG ADULTS

25. EEW!!!

26. WHAT DO
YOUNG
ADULTS
LIKE?

27. source: xkcd.com

28. source: 4gifs.com

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

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

31. BLINDING
INSIGHT # 1:
“HUMOR”

32. CREATIVE IDEA
Q - WHEN ARE EMERGENCIES
FUNNY?

33. CREATIVE IDEA
Q - WHEN ARE EMERGENCIES
FUNNY?
A – WHEN THEY AREN’T
WARN ME EMERGENCIES

37. 100 logins
/ day

38. Hey, we got a few responses!
Illustration style?
Homework, really???

39. WHAT DO
YOUNG
ADULTS
REALLY
LIKE?

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

41. BLINDING
INSIGHT # 2:
“STRAIGHT TALK”

42. CREATIVE IDEA
WE’VE DONE ALL WE CAN.
NOW IT’S UP TO YOU.

44. ARE YOU…

52. 300 logins
/ day

53. 3x response rate
Building supervisor email
Challenge: Can we reach more students?

54. WHAT DO
YOUNG
ADULTS
REALLY,
REALLY
LIKE?

55. BLINDING
INSIGHT # 3:
“(HINT: IT’S A THREE
LETTER WORD)”

57. ®

58. SSHHHH!

63. CREATIVE IDEA
A CONDOM CAN SAVE
YOUR LIFE.
SO CAN A TEXT ALERT.

68. 700 logins
/ day

69. Take a break, guys!

70. TOP TIPS

71. 1. BE UNEXPECTED

72. 2. BE DIRECT

73. 3. BE RELEVANT

74. 4. BE EVERYWHERE

75. 5. BE FLEXIBLE

76. xkcd.com

77. Eduweb Special:
Two for the price of one
Two marketing campaigns
1. WarnMe – Student awareness & action
2. Sproul Plaza – Student engagement
platform

78. SPROUL PLAZA
FACEBOOK APP

79. OBJECTIVE
Utilize social media to create two-way
dialogue on selected questions and topics
Engage with students where they hang out
Drive the agenda and participation for
future face-to-face forums
First test: The Budget discussion

80. PHASE ONE
BUILD INTEREST
/
PARTICIPATION
Profile picture
highlighting the
Sproul Plaza App
Incentives for
participation

81. PHASE TWO
PROVIDE
STIMULUS
Budget overview
video by
Vice Chancellor
John Wilton
Submission box
for questions

82. Sproul Plaza kickoff video link: John
Wilton, Vice Chancellor, gives a Budget
101 talk
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=k5
a19gjVtTs&feature=player_embedded

83. PHASE
THREE
QUESTIONS
AND VOTES
The questions
roll in… and get
voted on by other
participants

84. PHASE
THREE
QUESTIONS
AND VOTES
Participants vote
for their favorite
questions
Some engaged
users respond to
others’ questions

85. PHASE FOUR
THE WINNING
QUESTIONS
The top 3
winners get $100
gift cards
All top questions
(and more) are
submitted to the
VC for answers

86. PHASE FIVE
THE ANSWERS
Personal video
responses
to the top
questions
posted by VC
John Wilton (in
5 days)

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

88. 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

89. Taking the app out of facebook
Finding administrators who want to
engage this form of highly visible dialog
Dedicated video and editorial team

90. xkcd.com

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