Sometimes to get results for clients, it takes a unique approach to reach your target audience.
Martin Waymire has proudly worked with the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) for several years. The non-profit’s mission is to ultimately increase the percentage of Michigan residents with degrees or postsecondary certificates to 60 percent by 2025, particularly among low-income, minority and first-generation college-going students.
In order to reach this goal, MCAN has strategically targeted students and people who are influential in their lives, like counselors, educators, parents, school administrators and more. MCAN holds a series of events throughout the year to encourage students across the state to apply for college and financial aid, as well as “College Decision Day” toward the end of the school year to celebrate students’ decision to pursue a postsecondary career. College Decision Day mimics the NCAA’s National Signing Day for athletes by celebrating every student’s decision to pursue postsecondary education.
GOALS & OBJECTIVES
For College Decision Day 2017, Martin Waymire wanted to target students and get them more engaged in the celebration. Our team recommended Snapchat as a channel to explore this type of engagement. See our previous blog post about using Snapchat for events here.
Our goals were:
- To have the geofilter used by 200 people
- Keep the budget under $100.
RESEARCH & PLANNING
Snapchat is the most popular social network among millennials with approximately 150 million daily users — roughly 35 percent of whom are between the ages of 12 and 24 years old. In an effort to reach this key audience, MCAN and Martin Waymire designed a Snapchat filter to celebrate College Decision Day in a pilot program in Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo was chosen because of the Kalamazoo Promise, a highly-publicized program that promises all high school graduates a full ride to college upon graduation from Kalamazoo Public High schools.
EXECUTION
Martin Waymire designed a custom on-demand Snapchat geofilter specifically for the main campus at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, where a College Decision Day event was taking place. The geofilter, seen below, featured the words ‘KZoo Decides’ with a graduation cap and tassel.
RESULTS
- The geofilter was used by 683 people, with an average cost of $0.10 per use. A “use” refers to the amount of times that the Kalamazoo Decides geofilter was applied directly to a snap.
- The geofilter was viewed by 13,311 people, with an average cost of less than $0.01 per view. Views refer to the number of times a user watched a snap with the “Kalamazoo Decides” geofilter in a story, or in a snap sent directly to them.
EVALUATION
The pilot program shattered expectations for views and use by the target audience—high schoolers and Kalamazoo-area residents. The filter was delivered to more than 65 times the original goal while staying well within the budget at $78.57.
Martin Waymire supports clients working to make Michigan a better place. MCAN is working to encourage students in Michigan that postsecondary education is necessary, worth it and for everybody.
MCAN plans to communicate through various traditional and social media channels to continue this momentum. Through an innovative earned media and digital strategy, they are one step closer to achieving their goal of 60 percent of Michigan residents with postsecondary credentials or certificate by the year 2025.
