The recruiting of high school students by Ohio colleges and universities has become very competitive these days, and Ashland University has launched a media campaign in an effort to differentiate itself.
According to Colleen Murphy, vice president for enrollment management and marketing, the “I Am Ashland” branding awareness campaign promotes the fact that Ashland University values the individual student and offers a unique educational experience that combines the challenge of strong, applied academic programs with a faculty and staff who build nurturing relationships with their students.
Murphy said Ashland’s awareness campaign pushes the five student attributes, which are: I Am Known, I Am Confident, I Am Connected, I Am Enriched and I Am Strengthened.
“These attributes translate into what students will find here at Ashland and they were developed based on a number of student focus groups,” she said. “These are items such as having personal access to professors; having the opportunity to get involved in activities as a freshman; and learning to think with reason, act with skill and live with values.”
Murphy said the University’s overall goal of the branding awareness campaign is to drive traffic to the University’s undergraduate home page. Also as part of this campaign, the University is promoting specific academic programs such dietetics, social work, journalism and digital media, psychology, nursing and the MBA program as well as the University’s Columbus Center and graduate programs.
“The campaign calls for outdoor and online presence in a number of markets, including Cleveland, Columbus, Akron/Canton, Mansfield, Medina/Brunswick and Pittsburgh,” Murphy said.
“The University believes it is time to initiate a media campaign that would fully promote the true essence of the Ashland experience,” she said. “Ashland University provides unparalleled opportunities for students to learn, to grow and to find their place in the world and we need to communicate this to prospective students and their parents.”
The campaign, which was launched in mid-November, also utilizes a multitude of printed materials including viewbook, search piece and travel piece, all presenting the core sentiment that Ashland "values the individual student."
