42pointSEVEN: Advertising + Public Relations Scholarships Case Study

The Advertising + Public Relations Department is the largest degree program in the College of Communication Arts & Sciences, with over 1,300 majors. Through the support of alumni and corporate donors, the department has been able to establish a number of annual scholarships to provide students with financial support as the pursue their academic and career interests.

ADPR was beginning to experience a slump in the department’s annual scholarship applications and needed to begin reversing the trend. The Department has over 15 scholarships, including the prestigious William J. Hopp Scholarship, and is the leader in scholarship awards in the university’s College of Communication Arts & Sciences. The goal was to generate an increase in qualified candidates to ensure the scholarship funds were completely awarded.

The agency conducted research among AD+PR students to help develop, guide, and shape an integrated, “marketing calendar” driven campaign to increase scholarship awareness and qualified applicants. The campaign also included a dedicated effort to support the William J. Hopp Endowed Scholarship, the department’s premier financial award. The campaign included phased, weekly social media, newsletter, and e-mail posts and content. The 2022 campaign generated over 150 qualified scholarship applications, which was a 38% increase over the previous year. Selected graphics are shown below.

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