SoMe 2014 Submission: Oregon is Our Classroom

2014 Social Media Awards Submission:

Oregon Is Our Classroom contest

Breaking SocialIn the TrenchesJust ‘CauseGo LocalHouse PartyDream TeamET Phone HomeThe Unsung Hero

Entry Info• Campaign: Oregon Is Our Classroom | May 2013

• Client: Portland State University

• Company: Portland State University (in-house team)

• Location: Portland, OR

• Project leads: • Christian Aniciete, social media coordinator• Julie Smith, director of marketing• Peter Simon, videographer

Qualitative & Quantitative Objectives

• To launch the third and final phase of the Oregon is Our Classroom marketing campaign by running an interactive user-generated photo and video contest to show – not tell – how PSU students, faculty, staff and alumni take their education out into the community

• To generate 100 photo and/or video submissions

• To show how PSU integrates community engagement into its curriculum, which in turn would stimulate campus pride and create an even greater affinity with PSU

Target Audience

Current PSU Students: As more people, including PSU college students, engage with social media through smartphones, they’re discovering that taking a picture “on the go” using a high-resolution smartphone is much more less tedious than typing out a status update on a two-inch keyboard. PSU addresses this increasingly shifting habit of technology through a user-generated contest that harnesses PSU students to share their own photos and videos. PSU seniors specifically are given the opportunity to share their experiences with their required Senior Capstone classes, which take students out of the classroom and into the field. Faculty/Staff/PSU Employees: As PSU faculty, staff and employees are ever more pressed for time balancing everyday duties with remaining engaged in the campus community, the need to get to the point quicker than ever is ever more important. Visual content like pictures has become a short form way of communicating lots of information quickly and succinctly and this campaign offers this audience the opportunity to engage in this manner. Many faculty and staff also directly take part in their students’ Senior Capstone projects and this campaign gives them the chance to share their experiences.

Target Audience

Alumni: 85,000 of PSU’s alumni live in the Portland metro area. Given this fact, this campaign gives alumni the opportunity to engage and stay connected with their alma mater. Pictures and videos received through this contest also help evoke nostalgia among PSU alumni, including memories of projects, classes and programs that took them outside the classroom.

Strategy

• Leveraging the rise in visual social media marketing, the contest strived to bring the campaign video’s animated chair theme to life by inviting students, faculty, staff, and alumni to show – not tell – their “learning outside the classroom”

• Participants shared photos of their learning outside the classroom such as an Intel internship or a creek restoration project through the contest website

• To reward participation, the first 100 submissions received a free PSU shirt and were automatically entered to win three grand prizes donated by local businesses including a fine dining gift package at Stanford’s Restaurant

• Upon receipt of each user-generated photo, PSU’s University Communications gave each submission a creative, fun overlay in the shape of the state of Oregon

• Once each photo received this creative treatment, each piece was uploaded back on Facebook and Flickr for users to tag and share with their friends

Strategy

Campaign Deliverables, Tools & Tactics

Overview

• Discover your online presence

• Improve your story on external and internal web sites

• Engage fans and garner user-generated content

• Monitor and respond

• A campaign video centers on an animated chair moving out of the classroom and into various locales in Oregon to illustrate how a PSU education takes you out of the classroom and into the community

• The video can be found on youtube.com/portlandstateu and has generated over 37,000 views to date

Campaign Video

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• A short promo video was created in-house to announce the photo and video contest

• The video can be found on youtube.com/portlandstateu and has generated nearly 500 views to date

Promo Video

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Email • Two rounds of email campaigns

through Constant Contact were developed

• Both rounds of email campaigns went out to 30,000 PSU students and 2,000+ PSU employees

• The email invited the PSU campus community to participate in the campaign

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• A flyer and poster promoting the contest were designed in-house

• Over 500 flyers and posters were printed and distributed throughout the PSU campus

• The flyers and posters were also distributed throughout local restaurants and businesses

Flyers and posters

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Social Media

• On May 1, a post announcing the contest was made on the PSU Facebook page

• Through a promoted post, the announcement generated nearly 10,000 impressions, 41 likes, 3 comments and 3 shares

• As photos were submitted to the contest, PSU Facebook administrators uploaded them back on the site

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Social Media

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Social Media

• Over 500 of these 11x17 posters were created in-house and distributed throughout the PSU campus

• The posters also were distributed throughout the city of Portland including restaurants and businesses

• The poster prominently called out the Portland State of Mind contest

Results

• From May 1 – 29, the contest generated 200 submissions from PSU students, employees and alumni, helping raise awareness about the impact PSU students, faculty, staff and alumni make in Oregon and beyond in places like Burma and Egypt

• The user-generated photos helped tell PSU’s story – genuinely and authentically

• The campaign generated nearly 20,000 impressions on Facebook and 900 views on Flickr

• The treated photos can be found on facebook.com/portlandstatefans and flickr.com/photos/portland_state_university

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Results: Photo Displays

PSU’s University Communications brought the 200+ photos to life by creating and installing photo displays in two high-traffic areas of the PSU campus including the Student Union building

Results: pdx.edu feature story

• A special website was created featuring all 200+ user-generated photos which were uploaded via PSU’s Flickr site to create and embed a visual slideshow

• The feature went live on the pdx.edu homepage which garners millions of visitors regularly

Results: PSU Magazine

• The PSU Alumni Magazine published a two-page spread highlighting some of the photos received in its fall 2013 issue

• The Magazine has a 90,000 circulation, including numerous movers and shakers in the Portland area

Results: Anecdotal feedback

“Love it!” “You guys made it to PSU’s official [Facebook] page! Great! Keep it up!” “Looks neat! I saw some karate movies in the 1970’s that were fun!” “I always thought that the Outdoor Program needed one of these ‘this is my classroom’ posters. Thanks to you, now we do. Congratulations!” “That’s me – so cool!” “HAAA! Awesome PSU!” “Loved this contest! Proud to say I went to PSU!”

Challenges

• Limited promotional budget

• Limited Facebook organic reach – making it difficult to communicate to PSU’s Facebook fan base

• Technical difficulties (ie. dimensions of some of the photos did not fit accordingly with the branded overlay template)

• Despite attempts of incorporating videos in the contest, most of the submissions made were photos

More info about PSU’s social media

pdx.edu/connect/login-and-link-up

Education

SoMe 2014 Submission: Oregon is Our Classroom