Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/111663
up on a billboard,��� Perich jokes. Third, the production costs are so low that the school can spend more of its advertising money buying space in a variety of media, including magazines, billboards, other outdoor media, Pandora, Facebook, and LinkedIn. ���It���s important to realize that people are active and mobile,��� says Perich. ���They have short attention spans. They might not be watching TV, but they might be listening to Pandora or sur���ng the Internet, so you have to have ads online. They might be sitting in your they���ll say, ���Business!��� They see that as their slogan.��� Over the past four years, the school has kept the same basic look for the ads, while occasionally adding new phrases, and Perich expects that pattern to continue. ���In our next bit of messaging, we���re going to focus on the fact that students don���t come to Walsh because they want to keep their same jobs. They want better jobs, and we���re doing everything we can to make sure they get those better jobs,��� he says. parking lot, so why not have a cool sign in your parking lot that reinforces your message?��� Fourth, the background is so distinctive that it quickly became emblematic of the school. ���I wanted the college to own something���a color or a device���and it ended up being this yellow legal pad,��� says Perich. ���These days, any time you see that legal pad in this marketplace, you assume it���s an ad for Walsh College.��� Walsh constituents have adopted the slogan and the yellow pad as their own, notes Meller. Some sport bumper stickers featuring the yellow notepad; others use the print ads as posters in their of���ces. ���Everyone knows the tagline,��� says Meller. ���If I���m speaking to a room full of students and alumni, I���ll say, ���Live���breathe������ and Advertising Advice Perich and Meller offer four tips for other business schools planning to launch advertising campaigns: Don���t try to say too much. If schools cram excessive information into their ads���about their programs, their students, their faculty���the audience tunes out. ���When schools try to check off a lot of boxes, they just create white noise in the marketplace,��� explains Perich. ���There���s too much sameness among ads in the business school category, so schools have a hard time getting noticed.��� A stripped-down campaign has the added advantage of being less expensive, a big consideration for cash-strapped schools. Says Perich, ���Spend your energy coming up with a simple, striking campaign. Don���t waste money doing the 54 March/April 2013 BizEd photo shoot that every one of your competitors has already done.��� Don���t be boring. Meller observes, ���My predecessor used to say, ���Safe is death.��� If you do what���s predictable, you���re just going to blend in. Don���t be afraid to do things differently.��� ���Find something unique to your school and reveal that truth in an interesting way,��� Perich adds. ���Potential business students are bright people. They���re intuitive. They want to lead businesses. Keep in mind that you���re trying to recruit leaders.��� Tie all the pieces together in look and feel. ���It���s hard enough to occupy a piece of someone���s brain,��� says Perich. ���If you fragment your message, it���s harder for people to latch onto you. You know that when the guy in the brown uniform shows up, he���s from UPS. If he started wearing a tan uniform one day, a blue one the next day, you might wonder, ���Who���s delivering my boxes now?��� That���s how advertising works, too. We want to make sure that every time somebody sees that yellow legal pad, they know the message is coming from Walsh.��� Use a mix of media. ���You have to reach people in interesting ways in interesting places,��� he says. ���For instance, say you���re sitting in traf���c and you see a billboard that talks about being stuck in your career like you���re stuck in traf���c. You think, ���These people get it. They get me.������ Like his campaign for Walsh College, Perich���s formula for success is simple: ���Look deep inside. Figure out what truly makes you tick. And deliver it in a simple, compelling way that differentiates you from everyone else.���