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Would your institution invest $10,000 if it were “guaranteed” $100,000 in visibility nationally and/or in target recruitment areas? Would your trustees invest $100,000 if they were guaranteed $1,000,000 in positive name recognition nationally and/or in key regions of the country?

We are not talking about a mass media advertising campaign. It would cost your institution about $5-$7million to do an effective advertising campaign in your region. Instead, GDA Integrated Services designs a cost-effective, creative, guaranteed visibility campaign.

A GDAIS Guaranteed Visibility Campaign might include, but not be limited to these kinds of activities:

• Produce educational service materials for distribution to high school teachers for use in the classroom or to be hung in the office of high school counselors. The materials may be handouts for all students in a classroom, a poster for classroom display, a video for use in classroom discussion, or a website that can be accessed nationally by high school students. In each case, GDAIS will develop a mechanism to evaluate the impact of the activity.

• Develop an effective target cities promotional program. The GDAIS exclusive target cities program cultivates important alumni and parents in the target regions and creates a culture of promotion in the region, but most importantly, it gains positive visibility for your institution among key audiences and the general public. It is based on the premise that decentralized promotion has greater impact because it is done by people who know the region and can continue long after GDAIS leaves the scene.

• Identify national news stories. Identify several stories about programs, faculty members, or students that have potential to receive national media coverage. GDAIS will attempt to place the stories in appropriate national and higher education media.

• Establish a national center that is appropriate to your college’s educational mission but also has the capability of generating regular visibility through a combination of public opinion polls, national conferences, well-publicized student and faculty research on the subject, educational materials as described above, and so forth. We developed the successful Center for Employment Futures at Drexel University in Philadelphia to highlight its long history with co-operative education and its futuristic outlook.

• Position your institution with highly respected non-profit organizations so the college can benefit from their visibility and prestige. For example, we arranged a biologist from Carleton College to be a regular lecturer at the Minnesota Zoo. The greatest advantage was the College was mentioned each month in the paper and online newsletter that goes to the Zoo’s 120,000 members. A Florida client gives a free workshop on preparing and choosing a college every Saturday at Disney World in Orlando. A New England college arranged for their Renaissance music group (Pro Musica) to perform during the six weeks of the New England Renaissance Faire. The Faire annually has more than 350,000 visitors. Not only did the group have the opportunity to be seen, but they handed out small brochures with a description of the Renaissance instruments and information about the College.

• Consider strategic targeted advertising. As mentioned above, we have found that general mass media advertising has little impact on undergraduate student recruitment or friend-making. On the other hand, targeted advertising can pay great dividends. For example, a Saint Louis college purchased a full-page advertisement in the world-class Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra program that lists upcoming concert and art-related activities on the campus and included a short description of the college. Once a year, an Iowa college produces a Report to the Community that appears as a full-page advertorial in The Des Moines Register. Another college purchased “sponsorship” on NPR stations, but instead of a commercial, they produced a monthly one-minute program on Surprises of the Liberal Arts. Each program would describe a critical skill (problem solving, written communication, etc.) gained through the liberal arts.