Saint Leo is an independent, Catholic liberal arts college founded in 1889. Prevailing notions about rural campuses and “traditional” private schools were stifling the university’s desired image of a modern campus with a diverse student culture. We needed to set the record straight with an engaging student enrollment campaign.
Research & Discovery
We had extensive brainstorming meetings with faculty, staff, and current students. We discovered that the client was ready to avoid old-school, buttoned-up recruitment spiels of “academic excellence” and “rich scholastic traditions.” We needed to use an immersive writing style to create a day-in-the-life feel that gives prospective students an authentic taste of the campus experience.
Ideation & Execution
We set out to create an eye-catching and engaging student enrollment campaign to position the university as forward-thinking, yet founded in traditional values.
Recruitment emails are no good if nobody reads them.
We kept our messaging down to earth by pairing a casual tone with a hearty smattering of modern pop culture references.
Check out a few of our favorite one-liners:
Content that speaks volumes
(sometimes without words)
To symbolize the broad applicability of the liberal arts experience, we developed a radial graphic and applied it as a unifying design element throughout the campaign.
A revamped student admit package.
A modern welcome—complete with custom-designed USB packaging and mailer box—was guaranteed to get a roar of approval from newly accepted Saint Leo Lions.
Millennial attention spans?
Not a problem.
How do you get students to drop everything and submit their deposit? (“Uh, maybe later.”)
Or file for federal financial aid? (“Yawn. It can wait.”)
A pair of interactive animated landing pages offer a charismatic, attention-grabbing alternative to the dry directives college applicants often ignore.
“Yessss—I got in! OMIGOSH, what do I do now?!”
A sharp-looking microsite builds new student excitement and stops the admission process from stalling out by corralling must-know info, next steps, and FAQs into one handy checklist.
A website so good, we had to make it bigger.
The admitted student checklist turned out to be such a hit that Saint Leo asked us to expand the platform into a microsite for undergraduate admissions. The new site delivers streamlined, audience-relevant content and bold, on-brand design.
The results
Since adopting the Echo Delta approach to Getting Noticed and Taking Names™, Saint Leo University has seen a significant spike in audience engagement. Prospective student inquiries saw a 37 percent increase from the previous recruitment cycle. Total applications are up by 15 percent, with completed applications jumping up by an impressive 24 percent.
Absolutely amazing! No matter what project we call Echo Delta with, they always deliver an awesome product. We appreciate the outstanding effort that has gone into the work you’ve done for us.
Reggie Hill
Associate Vice President of Enrollment
for the 2015-2016 Undergraduate Recuitment Season
Saint Leo University
