Positioning Los Rios Colleges as a 'Smart Move' for Every Type of Student

Project Snapshot: Education and Workforce

Positioning Los Rios Colleges as a ‘Smart Move’ for Every Type of Student

Today’s students have many higher education options. Standing out as a top choice takes more than an advertisement telling them about a program or a website listing degree options. When it comes to inspiring action, the single best driver of consumer choice is a referral. What better way to convince students embrace and consider one of Los Rios Community College Direct’s schools than to have other students tell their stories?

The Challenge

In recent years, we have seen a major shift in how students receive, process, and accept information about the higher education options available to them. Requiring more than a traditional advertising campaign or a new website, Los Rios Community College District (LRCCD) needed a way to stand out as a top pathway for meeting the future career goals of potential students.

LRCCD partnered with 3fold to do just that. The challenge: creating a comprehensive and integrated campaign designed to connect with students in the ways, places, and manners they want and expect.

Our approach

01.

Have students do the convincing.

When it comes to inspiring action, the single best driver of consumer choice are referrals from trusted influencers. We needed to create a way for LRCCD to tell its story from another viewpoint. What better way to convince students to choose LRCCD than to have other students tell them why they did?

3fold worked with LRCCD’s four colleges—American River College, Cosumnes River College, Folsom Lake College, and Sacramento City College. With the help of their teams, we identified and recruited real students from each school’s priority programs and share their authentic viewpoint about the benefits and opportunities community college created for their lives.

From there, we built a multimedia, multilingual bank of student stories and custom photography. With these, we were able to craft a regional marketing campaign called “Smart move,” or “Buena decision.” for Spanish-speaking audiences.

02.

Create a campaign customizable to all audiences.

The “Smart move” campaign was designed to be adaptable for every student and audience – fresh-out-of-high-school kids, single parents, ambitious college-goers, non-traditional learners, and working-age adults.

The campaign pulled from the student story bank, featuring real students from all four Los Rios colleges illustrating their experiences. This included the obstacles they overcame and they successes they’ve experiences. Ultimately, they showed the “smart moves” they made in partnering with their college to reach their dreams.

Guiding principles for the campaign included:

1. Resonating with intended audiences
2. Aligning messages across channels
3. Using media buying resources efficiently
4. Being culturally relevant
5. Creating adaptable assets for District and college brands
6. Generating measurable outcomes
7. Allowing for consistent exposure throughout the year

About Los Rios Community College District

The Los Rios Community College District (LRCCD) is one of the nation’s most respected learning institutions and the second-largest community college district in California. LRCCD serves more than 75,000 students each year across five counties in the Sacramento region.

LRCCD is made up of four colleges, including Sacramento City College, Folsom Lake College, Cosumnes River College and American River College, as well as six education centers, and specialized workforce and economic development programs for local businesses, governments, and organizations.

3fold has been a proud partner with LRCCD since 2010.

Let's Talk.

Talk to one of our strategists about your challenges and how we can help. On us. No pressure.

916/442-1394

available from 9:00am – 5:30pm PST

Address 2031 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95811

Email [email protected]

Project Snapshot: Education and Workforce