Print & Web Communications for Education
Brochures for Colleges within a University
University of the Pacific
Admissions and communications staff members at University of the Pacific were thrilled with the feedback and results they received from the new recruiting campaign they produced with Zehno and launched in the fall of 2004. They wanted to extend that success to the rest of their admissions communications stream.
After prospects complete an inquiry form on Pacific’s Web site or at a college fair, the school sends more information based on the student’s interests. A prospect might receive one of eight brochures for colleges within the university.
Because they were often created as independent pieces by the schools themselves, some of the existing brochures looked exactly alike, while others used a design outside of the visual identity of university. Pacific’s main recruiting messages were being lost due to inconsistency with some of the brochures and lack of differentiation in the others.
Zehno helped Pacific re-identify the goals of the pieces and recommended a consistent visual and content approach that could be shared across the pieces. The resulting templates still allowed for instant recognition of what each school represented. This economy of scale helped the university stay on message while also saving on overall cost. Additional resources were allocated to the project by the colleges, as they no longer needed to produce the brochures on their own.
To work within Pacific’s budget, Zehno wrote and designed all of the pieces in tandem. Graphic treatments for the pieces integrated both with the new admissions pieces and the more conservative “official” school communications. While the search, travel and primary recruitment pieces used first-person stories and high-impact graphics, the school brochures needed to be less sizzle and more steak. Information and facts on available majors and programs drove the content. Every piece ended with a push back to the Web, where future students could explore to their hearts’ content.
Pacific planned a two-year schedule to roll out the completed brochure set. In year one, the School of Pharmacy debuted. The rest will go to press in budget year two.