The University of Tennessee System is a public powerhouse of education and research. It’s western-most campus, UT Martin, received funding to focus on strategic enrollment growth—calling for a new marketing campaign. We helped develop a new strategy to promote its diverse program offerings, institutional credibility, and beautiful, rural campus in the heart of Martin.
Services Provided
Brand Strategy & Creative Campaigns
Integrated Media Strategy
The Solution
Build Brand Equity Over Time to Drive Tangible Enrollment Results
We kicked off our enrollment campaign with comprehensive research on the UT Martin campus. We toured the campus, interviewed current UTM students, and gained an in-depth understanding of the university’s culture and community. We discovered that UT Martin offered prospective students all the big-school benefits of the UT system in a friendly, small-town setting.
To help them communicate their unique positioning, we developed an enrollment campaign that established UT Martin’s unique value as “A Small-Town University for People With Big Dreams.” From there, we developed an integrated marketing campaign that has been optimized and expanded over the course of a multi-year engagement that included traditional print ads, OOH vehicle wraps, paid social media, and more.
We wanted to establish a bold new look for UTM without straying from UT’s overarching visual identity. Using the UT system’s core color palette and thoughtful design flourishes, we established UTM’s institutional credibility while setting the brand apart from its competitors.
Delivering the Right Messages at the Right Moments
We created multi-channel campaigns for 20+ academic programs, complete with curated inquiry-gen landing pages.
As part of the institution’s OOH campaign, we designed vehicle wraps to take UT Martin on the road in new markets like St. Louis and Nashville.
Strengthening Ties Through Traditional Ads
We published a series of full-page ads in respected local newspapers to build trust within Martin’s friendly, familial neighborhoods.
For Gen Z, user-generated content stands out. We got a little help from current students to promote individual programs by creating unique organic TikTok videos.
Aligning Right on Time with Live Reporting
We built UTM a custom dashboard to allow them to see and understand each campaign’s performance at a glance. In our monthly reporting calls, we looked closely at key metrics, recommending optimizations and budget reallocations to improve results.
Lasting awareness comes from consistency. We met prospects where they were by creating more than 500 paid social ads optimized for each platform.
The Results
Our relationship with Echo Delta is positive and has shown measurable results for the university’s goals to introduce new academic programs to the market and increase student enrollment.
Bud Grimes
Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications
University of Tennessee at Martin
