Student Communication Marketing Plan For Our New Communication Strategy 2015

Creative Agency Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

RESEARCH

SURVEYFOCUS GROUP

SWOT ANALYSIS OF STUDENT COMMUNICATIONS

TARGET AUDIENCE

CREATIVE STRATEGY

COMPETITIVE UNIVERSITY APPSMOCK-UPS

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

POSSIBLE VENDORS/BUDGET

MEET THE TEAM

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Goal: Encourage student engagement with the Columbia’s events and activities across all departments. Make students educated and inform them about what is happening at Columbia College Chicago.

Problem: Students receive information from different sources around campus. There is no one source of communication, which can take away from their full experience at Columbia College Chicago.

Solution:Columbia College will create an app to serve as once source of communication. We conducted a survey and focus group to illustrate why students do not receive all the information on campus and how we can solve that problem. We want to reach to those who wish to be involved in campus activities, but because of organization, miscommunication, and a lack of communication they do not know what is “in the loop.”

Mission To get every student to download the Loop app to use as a source of communication for the school. This will give them access to be more involved and have a positive experience at Columbia College Chicago.

Why Create an App?The best advocates for the college are the students and faculty members. If they cannot feel connected to the school, this can impact and limit a student’s opportunity to enhance their college experience. The app will be easily accessible for the students to use on their mobile phones, therefore another way for Columbia to give a sense of community online. This is a convenient tool for new and current students that want to be more involved.

RESEARCH

SURVEYS

GOAL: To find out the student’s main and preferred source of communication with Columbia College Chicago.

TOTAL 392 students37 were Dance majors46 were Film and TV majors 98 were Business majors 36 were Advertising and PR majors17 were Photography majors164 were "other" majors provided at CCC

The survey captured a wide variety of majors across Columbia College. The highest contributing students are Business Majors.

This pie chart represents what year in college the 392 students who took the survey are in. 

Out of the 392 students35.9% were Seniors 29% were Juniors 18.3% were Sophomores 16.5% were Freshman

This pie chart shows that our highest contributing students are Seniors in College. Remember, seniors are the most familiar with the College.

As you see, students use a variety of media to get their information on Campus. A thing to consider for the college: Does the same information across campus communicate throughout each form of media?

What are the preferred methods for students to receive information?

Out of the 392 students who took the survey 57.7% want to receive information via email/app.

Both are forms of communication that can be found online through mobile phones.

Do you attend events outside of your department?

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Yes No N/AYes No N/A

As shown in the graph above, the answers are split evenly between “Yes” and “No” for attending events that are outside of your department. However, “No” is slightly higher.

The types of events range from networking events, interest related events, performance/auditions, and information about the resources on campus.

392 out of around 9,000 students at Columbia College has taken a survey. 114 students wanted to receive information through an app. With the communication Columbia provides currently, email is the most successful source. With the app and email combined, students that have taken the survey 57.7% are willing to receive information through an app or email. Both are forms of communication that can be found online through a mobile phone.

FOCUS GROUP

STUDENTS STICK TO THEIR OWN DEPARTMENT: Students tend to stick to their department because of their interest and familiarity. They are unaware of what is going on in other departments they may be in interested in collaborating with in the future. The types of projects they work on may require seeking students with another discipline. If a student is not a part of a certain department, they feel like they don’t have access to certain information. Students like the practicum courses that involve different majors in the classes; they feel it should be mandatory in their advising guide.

STUDENTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO ATTEND IF THE EVENT IS RECOMMENDED Students believe they only know about the events coming up just because of their roommate or someone close to them told them about it. Students only are involved in there department social media pages such as PSSRA, Ad Club, Dance center.

FACULTY SHOULD BE MORE INVOLVED: They believe if the faculty was more involved with the resources and events on campus, students are more willing to go and revisit. The professors take class trips to the Portfolio Center and Library and the students believe it is worth the time now that they are aware what is available to help them.

THERE IS MISCOMMUNICATION: Students feel frustrated that many posters or emails sent throughout campus can have a miscommunication or misinformation. Events or planned resources are not organized, have a missing piece of information, or do not give them enough time to plan ahead to attend to the event.

THERE NEEDS TO BE ONE SOURCE OF COMMUNICATION: Students think that an app would be the best option to get the information in only one source of communication system, it’s convenient, modern and they all agreed on downloading the app. All students wanted different features that could help them to get the information: The Chronicle, snow days/emergency alerts, OASIS/Moodle, email and events notifications, and important dates.

A focus group was conducted that contained 8 students from Fashion, Journalism/Advertising/Public Relations, Photography, Theater, and.… They shared their opinions and concerns about Columbia’s events and student communication overall. All agree in the following:

TARGET AUDIENCE

Strengths• Students attend events, but even more students aren’t

informed about the events.• Students are motivated to go to support friends • Students take the opportunity to network/socialize with staff

and students during events.• The atmosphere (energized, chill, fun)• Able to learn new things and see things differently• Events provide incentives (guest speakers, free food,

industry professionals, etc) • Placements of ads are important

Opportunities• Exposure and self promotion • Students are more likely to attend events and use Columbia

services if faculty are well informed• Classroom collaboration provides students to cross

departments and collaborate to build portfolio• Keep convo going after and keep it respectable-stay consist • Like notifications for events• Culture: professional connections vs. fun connections

Weaknesses• Late promotion on events• Social media: too many different accounts. Only for

specific departments. There isn’t a HUB. • Information is getting out there but students are not

receiving the information.• Students stick to events within their departments• Departments don’t communicate together, No access to

materials if not a part of a different department• Talent pool not effective, people forget it or don’t know

how to use it. Not advertised effectively. Too many fresh and sophomore,  need junior and higher talent

• Moodle, Oasis, not mobile friendly

Threats• Students get their information: is from word of mouth

and not through student communication. • Students take self initiative when getting projects done

to network, they don’t use Columbia’s resources (Talent pool)

• Paying for events

Target Profile 1: The Columbia TrendsetterJunior or Senior

This Columbia student is very heavily involved on campus with multiple student organizations. He or she has great relationships with the full-time faculty and seem to be ‘in the loop’ with the events going on at Columbia and outside events that provide opportunities in their field. They are the ‘go-to’ student that most students know on campus or in their department.

They possibly live in student housing or in the loop area so they spend majority of their time on campus at events or collaborating on projects. They type of activities they are interested may be professional and interest related. This is the ideal student at Columbia.

Target Profile 2: The Columbia Entrepreneur SpiritFreshman, Sophomore, Junior, or Senior

This Columbia student is aware of what is going on campus by word of mouth or viewing posters around campus. They are social and like to participate in events that relate in their field. They are open-minded to

venture into new areas but may struggle in finding the opportunity because they are unaware of what is available for their interest. He or she is very dependent on collaboration for their major and use their own network to constantly find people. Because of their busy entrepreneurial spirit or participating outside of school activities, they may not have the time to seek out the events around campus.

This student commutes to their classes and most likely have some other commitment outside of Columbia College.

“I live off campus so I don’t hear about what’s going on.” -Fashion/ Marketing Major, Junior

“It is really hard to collaborate with other departments. I feel like I don’t really have the resources to collaborate with other departments.” -Photography Major, Senior

“Posters are really vague… I feel like not all the information is on there.” -Art and Design, Senior

“The placement of where the posters are, are not convenient. It would be better to have something where they are all together.” Theater, Freshman

STUDENT COMMUNICATIONS

APP

After looking at the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats of student communication, the app would be an appropriate fit for Columbia College Chicago to enhance the college experience among students to become better advocates of the school.

Strengths and Opportunities: • Serves as one hub of communication rather than currently filtering events and

information based on source of media• Adds value to Columbia College by modernizing the way the college receives

information through technology to compete with other universities• Easy to access by reaching students through their smartphones or tablets. • Students become more involved and engaged across campus than in their own

department• Students can become bigger advocates of Columbia College because they have the

opportunity to make the most out of their college experience

Considerations:• Expenses and possible vendors to develop and maintain the app.• Only people with smartphones have access to the app, which is a majority of the

student population that has access in their hands• Other forms of communications will still be used to reach students (emails, posters, etc.)

“I never go on Columbia’s Facebook.” Art and Design, Senior

“I would use an app because it is one place for everything, I don’t have to check all my different Facebook groups, twitter, and insta, and email, and what not. Just having it all in one place would be really convenient. I would definitely use it.” Art and Design, Senior

“ Yeah, oh yeah, yes, definitely” (All, opening response to an app)

“ I was just looking at the events page and I think that’s probably the biggest thing and most convenient.” Dance, Senior

“They have a discount page and show all the different places that have student discounts, so that’s pretty cool.” Fashion/Marketing, Junior

“I think the campus map is definitely a good idea especially for freshman, because I know a lot of them don’t understand that Chicago is our campus and what buildings they can go into.” Dance, Senior

Below is a comparison of universities that currently use an app for their student communication. As a class, we found that Northwestern University has the features and organization of an app that is beneficial for students. Winona State University has unique features and the necessary links for students. Finally, we looked at DePaul University, a top competitor of Columbia, and how they have multiple mobile apps that are organized based on news, athletics, and departments.

School Apps Northwestern University WSU DePaul(Columbia Competitor)

Main Menu News, Map, Events, Directory, Athletics, Shuttles, Saferide, Library, Discounts, Class Search, Emergency Updates, NU Help

Campus Map, News, Academic, Events, Directory, Athletics, Arboretum, WSU Email, Social Media, D2L, Campus Help

Courses, Events, Directory, Maps, News, Athletics, Videos, Important Numbers, Library, Course Evaluations

Communicat-ionand News

• Cover stories related to NU and news articles featured in NYT. Topics include: Research, University News, Opinion, Campus Life, People, Arts and Events, Closeup, health, Honors, and In the World.

• Lists each campus wide event at WSU. When it is clicked on, lists a description of the event and able to share on social media.

• Includes a social media icons and WSU email icon.

• Covers news on DePaul Sports Headlines, DePaul Newsroom, and DePaul Newsline

Events • Events are color coordinated by Academics, Lectures & Meetings, Fitness & Recreation, Religious, Training, Social, and Other

• They have it split by each day from all-day events and organized by time.

• They have a symbol if the event is a reoccurring event

• When clicked on the event, it states When, where, audience, cost, contact, group, category, and a description of the event.

• Lists each event name and date of the events that are current or in the future

• When event is clicked, it gives a description and necessary info of time and place

• Organized by today, weekly, and monthly in order by time

• Include date, time, location and description of event

• Able to send event to email and save to student’s DePaul Events Calendar

Has separate app for events for a different department

Athletics • Contains recent news about college sports

• Contains a calendar of sporting events• Links to their social media accounts:

Twitter• Contains gallery of photos of their

games listed by date and sporting match.

• Embed live feed from College Sports Live that covers over 100 schools and 18,000 live events.

• Link to their online campus store

• The athletics tab opens links to their social media pages: YouTube, WSU sports News, Twitter, and Facebook

Depaul has separete app for Gameday LIVE events.• Contains list of sporting events for the

week in descending time order from future to past events; not specific for today or tomorrow’s events.

• Able to click on each sport to see news headlines about the sport.

• Links to social media accounts, campus store, and tickets

Campus Map/Transportation Methods

• Color coordinates with buildings, parking lots, and hospital that is associated with the school.

• Has a list of shuttle routes• Able to call a safe ride pick-up

• Shows Google Maps that outlines color coordination with the name of each Hall, Residence Halls, Library, and Commons Center

• Shows Google Maps and locates buildings with the red pins

Aesthetics and Organization

• The icons and labels are color coordinated, organized and easy to search

• All the campus information is available through the app

• Very simple layout and easy somewhat easy to navigate

• Content in News and Events is repetitive

• Very basic layout and easy to navigate • Not aesthetically appealing

Mis. and Unique • Contains link to student discounts• Has emergency updates• NU Help• Link to Library’s website

• Arboretum is a tree directory that gives descriptions of plants and where they are found on campus

• D2L is their course management system

• Contains icon for all video links of campus tours, youtube channel, library, athletics videos and more

COMPETITIVE

APP MOCK-UPS Events

MapList

Menu

News Groups

ADVERTISING

HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET STUDENTS DOWNLOAD THE APP?

The best way to start campaigning for the app is to use the current media channels Student Communications is using. The most effective forms of communication is email, posters, and word of mouth. Overtime, we will use our current form of communication to slowly transition students to use this app as the main source of communication.

To keep students engage with the mobile app and to prevent them from deleting it overtime, the app can contain exclusive and interesting content of upcoming news and events. This will give students a sense of community online through their phones.

Posters:On the right is a mock-up of a poster that would be used around campus and online. We would post it in high traffic areas on campus.

Target Incoming Students and Student Organizations:Introducing the app to the incoming Freshman and Transfer students in the beginning of the year starts the relationship with the college. The best time to reach them is Weeks of Welcome, Orientation, Convocation, etc. Other ways to reach students best through the student organization. The people involved the most on campus are more likely to use the app and spears the app through word of mouth.

Faculty and Columbia Trendsetters:The best Columbia advocates are the ones that are closest to the school. They are the brand ambassadors that are in the loop of what is going on around on and outside of campus. Faculty members are the direct touch point to the students and have the most influence of Columbia’s image. The trendsetter students will be the ambassadors

Student Loop & The Happs Bi-weekly emails and Social Media:Students will see the poster mock-up in their weekly emails as well as Columbia’s social media platforms.

POSSIBLE VENDORS

AKTA 223 W. Erie Street, Suite 4E Chicago, IL 312-361-3555 akta.com Contact Name: Scott Miegel/Eli scott.m@akta.com

Specialty: User Experience Design, Mobile App Development, Innovation Consulting, and Brand Experience

Ora Interactive 327 N. Aberdeen, Suite 210 Chicago, IL 60607 312-600-6023 http://orainteractive.com/ Contact Name: Mike Kelly mike.kelly@orainteractive.com

Specialty: Interactive Design, User Interface, Branding and Identity, I-phone/I-Pad Applications, Android Applications, Web Applications, and Responsive Mobile Web Development

Recommendation:

For an innovative and creative university like Columbia, either Akta or Ora will be a great fit.

We recommend Ora Interactive based on their design and user experience specialties and

the price to develop the app.

Foundational Research, Technical Architecture Review, Design & UX/UI Design.

Average Duration: 2-3 WeeksProjected Cost: ~$20-30K

Front End Development and Integration with web services (Per Platform: iOS, Android)

Average Duration: ~4-6 WeeksProjected Cost: ~$50-60K

Total: $80,000 completed in 9 weeks

Foundational Research, Technical Architecture Review, *Design & UX/UI Design: 1-2 Weeks 16 - 24 hours *Per the requirements, they did not quote out Design. However they allocated 8-16 hours to provide students mobile design consulting and time spent prepping and slicing assets for development.

Front End Development and Integration with Web Services: iOS Development (initial build, no API integration) 60 - 70 hours iOS Development (API and Peripheral integration) 20 - 30 hours Total for iOS: $15, 000

What we need: iOS Development (API and Peripheral integration) 20 - 30 hours Total for iOS: $15, 000 3-4 Weeks, 70 hours

Android Development (initial build, no API integration) 80 - 90 hours Android Development (API and Peripheral integration) 30 - 40 hours Total for Android: $20,000 4 - 5 Weeks

Their blended rate is $150 / hour, however they will reduce their rate to $125 / HR. Total: $35,000 completed in 11 weeks

MEET THE TEAM Creative Agency Management

FinanceAccount

Creative Planning

Haley Konnor, Pui-yu Chan, and Alicea Peyton

Isabel Sirvent, Alyssa Orozco, and Bianca Sanchez

Melinda Hill, Anabelle Ciancuillo, and Andrea Rivera Maza

Mickey Wozniak, Ashley Stavropoulos, Dalton Viggens, and Brittnee Snodgrass