NACCU Marketing Excellence Award Florida SouthWestern State College Kerri Demeri, Assistant Director of Auxiliary Services BUC Card Office 8099 College Parkway Fort Myers, FL 33913 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Florida SouthWestern State College and our BUC Card Office were rebranded in July of 2014. Our goal was to reissue cards to 50 percent of our current cardholders within the first 6 months. We capitalized on the rebranding hype by initiating our own social media blasts, creating relevant printed resources, and sponsoring exciting promotional events. After only 4 months, our office had issued 11,800 ID cards to active students, faculty, staff, and affiliates. This number reflects approximately 65 percent of our BUC Card constituents. At the end of 6 months, our total number of cards issued totaled 13,066, which reflects 72% percent of our total constituents. OBJECTIVES Our college ID card program is three years young and has been a successful and wellreceived service to our students and school community. In July 2014, the college underwent a rebranding, which included a full name change and the revival of our school mascot. Rebranding afforded our ID card office the opportunity to reinvent our services, including our card name, card design, and our declining balance account names. Reissue at least 50% of all active ID cards within the first 6 months Re-carding initiative to play vital role in the college s overall rebranding experience Increase visibility of the BUC Card facets, components and conveniences Increase Campus BUC$ deposits MARKETING PLAN Rebranding Strategy Piggybacking on our college s rebranding efforts and utilizing the BUC Card as a frontrunner to promote the new school colors, mascot, and name was our targeted objective. We utilized print ads, social media, and promotional events to encourage our intended market to promptly acquire their new ID Card and immediately load money on their ID card for campus use.
Print Ads Posters, banners, and visual media flyers distributed college-wide highlighted our new ID card. These materials showcased the new ID design for our college and also served as notification to our students that old ID s would soon become inactive. Print ads were also designed to promote a variety of raffles, give-a-ways, and Campus BUC$. A substantial segment of our target market is an older age group that does not participate in online social media therefore; print ads were utilized because they are a low-cost high-impact method for delivering our message. Social Media Social Media was used heavily in announcing our new look, new name, and new ID. Via our BUC Card Facebook page, we unveiled the new card design over the course of a ten-day period. Sequentially, each day of the promotion, a new segment of the ID card was revealed. These social media posts seemed to increase our clientele reach exponentially in comparison to previous posts. Our rebranding campaign doubled our page likes in the first three months. Social media is a fun, interactive, and free method for delivering our message. It allowed us to communicate a new message daily with the reveal of the ID card and reach the largest segment of our target market: Generation I individuals, which are those that live on social media. Promotion Raffle: Rules stated that participants were required to turn in their old ID card to obtain a new one without paying a replacement ID fee. All old ID cards collected were placed in a ballot box for a monthly drawing. Each month 4 winners were selected (July through October) for a prize of $50 in Campus BUC$ (our declining balance fund accepted at campus dining, our bookstore, and at student printing kiosks). Give-A-Ways: Our BUC Card Office handed out free lanyards and ID holders to anyone who was issued a new ID. We ordered 3,000 lanyards for this give-a-way; they were depleted in the first month of the promotion. Enticing our college constituents with freebies, was a sure way to get them to take action. Using Campus BUC$ as the reward was designed to cross-promote this feature of the BUC Card. Giving away the FSW lanyard with our BUC Card attached, was seen across campus as students regularly displayed it by wearing it around their neck, attaching it to their keys or hanging it from their back packs. Each exposure proved to be invaluable tools in helping us reach our program objective.
CREATIVE Banner Raffle - Ballot Box Wrap Flyer Front Flyer Back Poster A Poster B Facebook Reveal Campaign
MEASUREABLE RESULTS ID Cards Issued by Fiscal Year (Fiscal Year is July 1 June 30) 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 FY 12 FY 13 FY 14 FY 15 (6 Months) Note: 07/01/2014-10/31/2014 we issued 11,827 ID cards, which exceeded the number of cards issued for both fiscal year 2013 and 2014. ID Cards Issued July 1, 2014 October 31, 2014 Compared to Active Constituents (Students, Faculty, Staff, and Affiliates) Active Constituents Id Cards Issued 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 Month/Year Comparison of Declining Balance Deposits DECEMBER NOVEMBER OCTOBER SEPTEMBER AUGUST FY 15 FY 14 FY 13 JULY 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000
Facebook Likes 06/15/2014 09/29/2014 Facebook Reach 06/15/2014 09/29/2014 Note: July 1, 2014 was our College Spirit Day, posts of our ID staff issuing BUC Cards was shared by various pages and individuals, resulting in record numbers. Lessons Learned 1. We underestimated how popular and effective our program message would be, resulting in the fact that our lanyard and ID holder give-a-way was depleted after just one month. We would have liked to still be distributing both at the start of our fall semester in late August. 2. Our social media campaign to reveal our new look was a huge success as proven by our increased number of likes and our broadened school/ community reach. This means of notification may very likely prove to be a successful avenue for future BUC Card events and promotions. 3. Campus BUC$ deposits increased on average45% each month over the same month in the previous year. This result was completely unexpected and in the future we know to place more power in cross-promoting our services and BUC Card promotions.