Case Study
Nationwide Higher Education Collaborative Website Development
The Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities, an organization that represents participating colleges and universities associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, wanted to better reflect their existing student body and more effectively reach prospective students with their brand. Neuger was tasked with creating a new brand and website for the organization.
The Situation
The collaborative’s website was stale and difficult for users to navigate each participating institutions’ offerings. As they looked to rebrand and refresh their website, they wanted to ensure each college was authentically represented while also tying in the blanket theme and identity.
The Communications Challenge
Their former brand, “Why Go Lutheran?,” was outdated and no longer seemed to resonate with a new generation of prospective students. There are 26 ELCA colleges in the United States. Currently, 20 are members of the collaborative. All of these members are partners but some compete for the same students. We needed to ensure the rebranded materials proportionately and fairly represented each college’s unique offerings while still reflecting the value of the collaborative.
The Strategy
In-depth content strategy was core to this project. In late 2018, we conducted phone interviews and distributed email surveys to 41 students currently enrolled at ELCA colleges and universities, as well as prospective high school students, to capture the essence of what they value and were looking for in their postsecondary experience. We also tested the new Imagine Colleges brand with them to see how well it aligned with what current and prospective students hold to be true about Lutheran higher education:
Imagine what you have to offer our world. You are an amazing and unique human being and the 26 colleges and universities of the ELCA Collaborative have designed their philosophies, their campuses and their education to specifically help you imagine a better world … not only for you, but for everyone you impact.
We confirmed the branding worked with the target audience and began rolling out the Imagine Colleges brand.
We started with the website with the goal of having consistent messaging and themes throughout: academic excellence, extraordinary experiences, campus involvement, and service and stewardship. Limiting the page count for easy navigation and including an interactive map experience to show the geographic reach of the collaborative were two main goals. The website, imaginecolleges.org, launched in June 2019.
Our team refreshed the collaborative’s SEM ads and launched Spotify ads, weaving in the new look, design and messaging into online advertising channels to ensure consistent messaging for better brand loyalty.
The Results
The result was a modernized website with an enhanced user experience that profiles each institution.
The campaign was further supported by advertisements on Spotify targeted with unique, creative copy to both parents and prospective students. These advertisements are updated quarterly and continue to run.
By leveraging the combined resources of multiple schools and the expertise of Neuger, individual colleges are paying less than $3,000 to cover the full costs of the campaign (and additional support services).
Colleges are able to directly track the results of the campaign and report positive engagement with the website. Search engine and Spotify analytics demonstrate higher-than-average click-through rates and positive results for the campaign. Additionally, the multi-year effort continues to evolve with greater focus on the target population and remains fresh with updated creative.