Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College approached Mad Genius to produce a television spot to help them increase enrollment. As planning and discussion commenced, however, the scope of the project quickly grew to encompass a comprehensive media strategy and a complete website overhaul. “This is going to be fun!” we thought. And we were right, so we’re excited to show you what we came up with—but first, a few project details:
ABOUT MGCCC
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College is among the largest such institutions in the state, with 10 locations throughout Stone, George, Harrison, and Jackson Counties. The school serves more than 10,000 students with literally hundreds of academic, technical and workforce training programs. In fact, Gulf Coast is the only community college in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana to be in the top 100 associate degree producers in the nation. They’re a convenient, affordable, job-creating option in one of the most dynamic regions of our state—and Mad Genius is thrilled to be their marketing partner.
MARKETING CHALLENGES
Together with Gulf Coast, Mad Genius started by identifying a variety of challenges and communications barriers with regard to increasing enrollment. Chief among these is the perception among some coast residents that choosing MGCCC is a form of “settling” for something less effective or useful than a University education. The reality is that MGCCC is recognized nationally for the quality and breadth of its programs. As such, it is a perennial feeder institution for Universities across the country, arming students with cost-effective core credits that count toward virtually any Bachelor’s Degree. Likewise, Mississippi’s state universities and other four-year colleges don’t even offer most of the technical and workforce training programs available at Gulf Coast. So…settling? Not so much—but the perception would certainly need to be addressed.
Another barrier we identified was the…nomenclatural (surprisingly not a made-up word!) relationship between Gulf Coast and its students and graduates. Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College is longer than the alphabet, and in spite of appearances, even the initials, MGCCC, are kind of a mouthful to get out. So students and alumni tend to refer to the school by campus or location as opposed to its official nomenclature. For instance, the Perkinston campus is known as Perk, the Jackson County Campus is JC, etc. We felt like that needed to be addressed as well.
Lastly, marketing the school effectively means reaching some wildly different audiences. In addition to the Gulf Coast region being the most diverse part of the state, and the different educational options at Gulf Coast Community College appeal to specific types of students, all in different stages of their lives:
- College Bound High School Students are candidates for Gulf Coast’s Academic/University Parallel Programs.
- Non-traditional High School or GED Graduates might also consider the above programs, but more often choose among two-year Associate Degree programs or workforce training.
- Likewise, Adults Interested In Continuing Their Education most often find themselves drawn to Associate Degrees or workforce training as well.
Needless to say, both messaging and media strategy had to be designed to push different buttons for these different audiences—a tall order, but one we approached with gusto.
MEDIA & MESSAGING
In addition to developing digital and traditional media recommendations designed to reach the above audiences, Mad Genius developed a multi-tiered messaging strategy to communicate with them effectively—and help the school overcome some of the other marketing challenges above. Take a look at the tactics we’ve developed thus far:
:30 Image TV Spot
This spot was designed to “reset” the overall perception of MGCCC as a place for which students “settle,” and instead position the school as the impressive learning institution it is—complete with multiple courses, genuine college campuses, and a robust sports program.
Notice how the message builds from the opening Do More rallying cry to the final appeal to Gulf Coast Through Life, putting a positive spin on a familiar phrase and lightly reinforcing the idea that it’s perfectly okay to refer to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College as “Gulf Coast,” as opposed to Perk, JC or any other campus-specific nickname.
:30 Workforce TV
Our second TV spot was designed to speak to a slightly older audience about the benefits of continuing their education at Gulf Coast.
Traditional Ads & Outdoor
Mad Genius was pleased to expand Gulf Coast’s media strategy to include print and outdoor. As you can see, both play in the same design sandbox as our video executions.
Web Landing Page
Mad Genius developed a robust digital strategy to supplement our video and traditional media tactics. You may have noticed that all of the executions above lead directly to a custom landing page at the memorable URL of gulfcoastthroughlife.com. If you click through the thumbnail below, you’ll see that this landing page heavily encourages action on the part of the user, and also includes some compelling facts for those users still on the fence. It’s a dynamic, elegant presentation—and it’s just a glimpse of the fully redesigned website now in the works. (Alas, that’s a post for another day.)
In the meantime, we’re incredibly pleased to help Gulf Coast increase their enrollment and make the most of their deserving success as one of Mississippi’s premier educational institutions.
