TV Show on the air on TV, on the web, and in the schools!

The Goal: Increase awareness of financial aid workshops and the ability to fill out the requisite paperwork such as FAFSA forms.  Our target audience was the at-risk, High School youth that desperately needs this funding opportunity.  We also wanted to include as a secondary target, a more general audience as well which included teachers, administrators, counselors and parents because of the media reach we attained.  Our “lifestyle” approach to marketing includes providing tools and outreach opportunities to our great grassroots partners such as CalSoaps who are getting the job done in the trenches!

Students who successfully went through the Cash for College workshops show off concert tickets and new gear courtesy of sponsor Boost Mobile!  Our firm also engaged other sponsors to encourage attendance such as iPods from Apple and Fuzion’s Cutting Edge scooters.

Our Approach:

This is an excellent example of our strengths in social marketing skills.  We knew that we needed to employ our extensive experience of reaching at-risk and inner city youth by creating the directed messages and also the “message carriers” to which our target market will respond.  The secondary general audience is also reached with our targeted approach due to the popularity of the methods.  Also due to the limited budget resources, our tool kit that we created was designed as easy to use for our grassroots partners!

Peer group speakers were used to connect with hard to reach student groups!

Teaming up with the top syndicated radio hosts, “The Baka Boyz” and their Hip Hop Master Mix show of over 2 Million listeners, we maximized brand leverage for the Cash for College workshops, AND worked to overcome the objection that “college is out of reach”…”I can’t afford college”, or “I’m not college material”. 

We created a half hour television program featuring the “Baka Boyz” with a “hip hop flava’” that was distributed statewide AND also made available in schools, in local communities and on the web.  We featured the Baka Boyz in press, built promotions around their shows, and tied in with incentive programs and community affairs with stations all across California.  Adding in street teams, radio ad buys and radio interviews made this a complete, integrated social marketing campaign.

Our Media Campaign was planned in all areas across the state to reach millions of listeners within our target demo.  In addition, we engaged the radio stations to give us extra free value add by lining up community call in programs, more events and use of their street teams as well as utilizing their email lists.  For instance, we customized an email that went out to 248,000 targeted radio listeners in the Los Angeles area!  The hits to the site were high due to the right target with prize incentives.

Our strategy includes really maximizing our media partnerships like with the awesome staff at KDAY who helped us promote workshops at priority schools AND helped devise a LIVE incentive concert and additional press!

Another audience is the stakeholder audience, as well as parents.  As an additional outreach tool, we engaged leaders such as City Councilmen and community leaders on talk shows so that they could reach out in more of a one to one manner on talk shows – Spanish and English language – to help build trust and an acceptance of the messages.  All told, this approach resulted in hours of on-air time and multiple talk shows with the opportunities to address questions from callers.

Next Wave rolling up their sleeves to work in school with the administrators!

The Results:The Campaign is continuing from last year in which FAFSA entries increased more than 46%!  The “Baka Boyz” participation and our creative has enabled us to reach our at-risk high school target in a big way!   With the Radio, TV, website, press, events and in school activities, results are estimated to be up over 60% in targeted areas from last year!

Social Campaign Elements

TV Show Web Link:

We created the website with useful information and links in addition to the online version of the TV show so that access to the information was available to everyone 24/7.

http://www.cashforcollege.tv

Radio Samples:

We target our radio to the audience as well as the events. Such as Spanish language spots to promote the TV Show and Events. Also, informational spots to websites for additional information.

We also create effective, interactive web ties wioith our media partners such as
an email blast to 248,000 targeted users.

We also created an announcement by the Baka Boyz that went out to schools to use on their PA systems, which would let students know about the workshops.

1. Promotion of Sponsor prizes (iPods, Boost Mobile, Fuzion), Events (Concert and Workshops) and Website information
2. Station Promo Example: Extra Value Partnership with radio station to promote Cash for College, Event and booth, Sponsor incentives and TV Show
3. Spanish Language Example: Spot to promote Cash for College, Calgrants and Workshops
4. 3 spot examples:
   I. Promotional Spot for TV Show in San Francisco
   II. Promoting Oakland Cash for College Event
   III. In School morning announcement to promote workshops at schools statewide

Press Targeted Samples:
This press example demonstrates our ability to use the peer-group representatives to get the messages across to the hard-to-reach at-risk youth markets. 

"At-Risk Students Turn Toward College"

This is an example of how we utilize the Spanish-speaking peer-group representatives to reach the Spanish-speaking markets.

Spanish Language PR Newspaper Outreach

Print Ad Samples:

The following postcard was used for the many street teams, school meetings and radio events to let students know about the workshops and Cash for College.  We also made customized fliers for each area.  Using the overall strategic theme and collateral the students see for other events helps to bring the Brand into their top of mind awareness.  Cards also become collectibles.  Our radio and promotional partners got the word out to all kinds of events and concerts prior to the workshops – thus maximizing the budget!