SF State University

Igniting change with a multi-channel campaign for education

reading view

visual view

Industry

Education

22K

Enrolled students

300K

Graduates

8th

Social mobility in US

125

Years established

Services

Brand & Positioning Sprints

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Content Creation

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The case.

San Francisco State, a major public university, needs a new, multi-channel brand campaign to generate enrollment interest.

Public sector channel marketing
for the long term.

Being a large public university in California, it can be difficult to attract students because they do not lack choice. Add in the covid shutdown and SFSU needed something different. The SFSU MarComm director worked with 300FeetOut, launching off the existing brand to create the foundation for a city wide, multi-channel campaign including TV, radio, OOH, and digital to reach students and their influencers, parents and teachers.

Student-led
concept validation.

SFSU leadership wanted a campaign true to the experience of being on a city campus. Extracting opinions from the target audience was key to creating a campaign for students, by the students. 3FO worked with a team to conduct research that informed the messaging, then prototyped 5 concepts, of which the internal team–including the Chancellor’s office, selected their favorites. Finally, 24 students reviewed those 2 campaigns which were rotated to avoid order bias. The winner was clear.

Working within the public system.
Working with any public entity includes working with a number of stakeholders and meeting requirements. 3FO met three, by having the Local Business Enterprise designation, as well as the Small Business and DBE to qualify us. We also worked both up and down the ladder, making sure our concepts and deliverables were explained to not only the marketing department but created short secondary presentations to be shared with leadership stakeholders outside of the department.

Campaign photo +
video shoot.

32+ students, 4 days of shooting, 12 locations, fabulous results. Each student's educational story is personal and so were the stories we told.

Campaign marketing
implementation and rollout.

Each featured student story drove from multiple channels to a campaign landing page that intakes leads. From webpages to social media, TV and radio commercials, to bus sides and pole banners, each of the featured students can be seen around San Francisco in advertising that surrounds you today. After the successful launch, we created tools and assets so SFSU internal teams could continue rolling out the campaign for the next few years.

Brand consistency gained
with long term campaigns.

The value of a long term brand campaign can be measured by engagement, conversions like enrollment, and public mentions. The SFSU project has solidified the university’s reputation as one of the most diverse campuses in the country.