C A S E S T U D Y
Increasing brand awareness to optimize the admissions journey
How we're helping the University of Montana
The University of Montana is run by a passionate CMO who empowers her team to run with big ideas. When they came to us they were in the middle of shifting their focus to driving the brand experience. The team is working to better understand their brand equity so they can increase brand awareness before and after their brand launch and optimize the admissions journey and experience.
Partnership goals
UMontana has a clear sense of their strategic brand direction, enabling us to support them with data-backed insights, recommendations, and industry expertise.
Partnership outcomes
The team is proactively learning and identifying how to use social listening to better understand brand health and reputation through two strategies:
- Manage brand health and perception using custom social listening
- Establish brand value using data storytelling and aligning measurement with goals
Continuous support helps UMontana understand how our collaboration, resources, and tools integrate into their day-to-day work. They’ve participated in multiple strategy sessions to keep them on track and expand their knowledge and an onsite workshop to refine their social media content strategy skills.
“There’s value in a deep dive into the brand, but the partnership is also a way of managing your brand as an asset in a way campuses haven’t thought of and might not even know they can.”
— Jenny Petty, Vice President Marketing and Communications
Montana's progress
Solidly in the middle of our two-year partnership, we’re helping UMontana meet four goals to ultimately strengthen their brand and reputation.
Increase brand awareness and national earned media narrative
Guidance, support, and informed recommendations establish a robust understanding of brand conversation and increased alignment with their top content, communication efforts, and audiences. The partnership has been a thermometer on campus climate for brand reputation. In marketing and comms, it gives the team a way to put parameters around the perception of the climate.
A year and a half into the partnership, overall and earned conversation are higher than before working with us, reflecting increased brand awareness.
Grow and stabilize enrollment through enhancing the student experience
Recommendations and best practices empower the team to learn from the conversation and interact with their audience. We supported direct engagement with the more than 250 admissions-related mentions from prospective students and their families and increased owned and earned engagement.
The earned engagement volume for year two (24%) already surpassed year one (22%), and we still have a few months to go. Both metrics are also higher than our 2021–2022 benchmark for earned engagement: 11–23%.
A strategy session and resource sharing encouraged the team to consider the specific needs of transfer and post-traditional students, and incorporate the personas into website content.
Elevate research by increasing and improving faculty research media placements
Media relations support and insights provide context for how news stories reflect their audiences, brand, and research, elevating and strengthening UMontana’s standing as a respected research institution.
Educate the team on best practices and extended strategy
Social media learning, strategy sessions, and new team member onboarding extend the team’s expertise and capacity.
Why it's working
Strategy sessions provide actionable insights.
A collaborative culture encourages innovation.