Purdue Polytechnic Institute

In 2017, we were hired by the Executive Director of Purdue Polytechnic in Anderson through a statewide bid to engage as their agency of record. We maintained the position as their creative agency until the 2021 when Purdue restructured and created an in-house agency team.

Throughout our time with Purdue we lead multiple experiential design, brand, and development projects. Here are a few highlights:

Make Like A Girl

Project: Event Design | Branding | Media

Details: Make Like A Girl was an experiential event designed to engage young women in hands-on tech, leadership, and Makerspace learning. Previously, a similar open-house style event had been unsuccessfully attended. The Purdue team knew there was a need but were unsure of how to proceed. The event we designed targeted high-school aged girls and challenged them to think about a world where they could make a hands-on difference. The event ran for two consecutive sold-out years and served as a launchpad for a strong women in engineering technology platform for the school.

Results:

Attendance: Tripled in the first year and doubled in the second year.
Engagement: According to staff, engagement levels during the event were way up from previous year. 97% of respondents said the program and staff were very engaging.
We created a tracking process and post event rating system. A few key results were:
- Over 98% of girls that participated said they were likely or very likely to recommend this event to a friend.
- After the event, 73% of respondents said they would consider coming to Purdue Polytechnic for college.
Promotion: Promotions showed above average engagement and response rates.
- Direct email sends to students saw an average of 3% higher open rates than industry standard.
- Email sends to counselors and teachers saw average open rates more than double industry standard and click rates more than triple industry standard.
- First time snapchat custom geofilter saw 121 impression, 60 conversions, and over 3000 views. The filter ran for the duration of the event and girls were encouraged to use and share their #makelikeagirl photos using the filter.
- Overall promotions both direct to schools and through social media were directed to Eventbrite. Our Eventbrite registration hit capacity a week early and we had to close registration.
- Facebook promotional blitz saw over 5,500 people reached, 98 engagements, and 54 click throughs to the registration page over a 2 week period with $75 ad spend. Of our girls that took the post-event survey, 12% were at the event as a direct result of social media.

SHIFT

Project: Event Design | Branding | Media

Details: In late May of 2017, the director of Purdue Polytechnic was approached by their corporate partners at Red Gold about working together on a career fair. We were contracted to brand, design, promote, and create an ongoing partnership strategy that would enhance recruitment efforts for both Purdue Polytechnic and Red Gold. With a short timeline of only 3 weeks, we created a strategy around an ongoing continuing education and career advancement campaign.

Results:

Attendance: Attendance goal was 75-100 people for the inaugural event. We achieved approximately 100 in attendance after final count.
Engagement: According to staff at both Red Gold and Purdue Polytechnic, engagement levels during the event were great and quality of applicants were good. As this event was cross promoting Red Gold, the RG and Purdue partnership program, and Purdue Polytechnic programs, leads were split. Sentiment from Red Gold staff was overwhelmingly positive and they were excited about the leads coming from the event and future possibilities.
Purdue Leads: Purdue captured 75 non traditional student leads from this event and 3 potential applicants.
Promotion: Promotions showed above average engagement and response rates.
- Email sends to undecided seniors hit 30% open rates, industry average is 16%.
- Our wishpond event landing page saw nearly 900 views between June 9th-25th.
- Overall promotions from print, radio and through social media were directed to Eventbrite and encouraging people to show up on the day of the event. Our Eventbrite registration hit 51 RSVPs out of 75 available, page saw 396 views. This was a non-ticketed open house style event and RSVPs were not required. With 51 RSVPs and over 100 in attendance, we exceeded the attendance goal by over 20%
- Facebook promotional blitz saw over 26,000 people reached, 21 event responses, and 99 actions over a 2 week period with $800 ad spend across 6 ads. Highest response rates came from demographic age group of 18-34, split pretty evenly M/F (males skewed younger, females skewed older).

Recruitment Event Brand Designs

Project: Various Event Branding

Deliverables: Creative Direction | Asset Design and Printing

Details: Throughout our relationship with Purdue, we created design concepts and branding for several mini recruitment events.

Black & Gold Days

Project: Event Branding

Deliverables: Creative Direction | Asset Design and Printing | Event Photography | Day of planning and coordination

Details: Black and Gold Days is an annual hands-on event for 11th and 12th students and their parents to explore Purdue Polytechnic Anderson degree programs. Students have an opportunity to meet faculty and to complete an engineering or information technology activity such as building a robot using 3D printing technology or programing a Raspberry Pi. Admission and Financial Aid information sessions will be available to help guide families through Purdue’s enrollment processes.

Media Club & Student Podcast

Project: Project Branding and Promotional Materials

Deliverables: Creative Direction | Asset Design and Printing | Logo Design | Email campaign design

Details: We named, directed, and designed the new brand for the student lead podcast at Purdue Polytechnic. We also helped recruit students to participate, set up the studio, made technology recommendation, wrote and recorded their podcast music, and helped set up their distribution plan.