The University of New Mexico is New Mexico’s flagship institution, an irreplicable part of New Mexico’s community, economy, and future. When Esparza acquired UNM’s University Communications and Marketing department as a client in May 2021, their goals were to increase enrollment and build brand awareness of the university — moving away from a ‘University Near Mom’ perception into one that more accurately reflected the quality, affordability, and opportunity available at UNM. In November 2021, Esparza also acquired The UNM College of Nursing as a client, with similar goals of increasing awareness and enrollment.
The Esparza team began the relationship by putting together a comprehensive marketing strategy and roadmap that would guide our efforts over the coming months as we tackled a new institutional spot, updated digital marketing efforts, traditional media placements and more. A roadmap was built to guide efforts and was adjusted as immediate needs and new projects emerged in collaboration with the UCAM team.
Esparza is an award-winning, full-service advertising and digital marketing agency based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We offer a wide range of services to help grow your business. We have offices in New Mexico and Texas and work with clients worldwide.
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The Need
The University of New Mexico is New Mexico’s flagship institution, an irreplicable part of New Mexico’s community, economy, and future. When Esparza acquired UNM’s University Communications and Marketing department as a client in May 2021, their goals were to increase enrollment and build brand awareness of the university — moving away from a ‘University Near Mom’ perception into one that more accurately reflected the quality, affordability, and opportunity available at UNM. In November 2021, Esparza also acquired The UNM College of Nursing as a client, with similar goals of increasing awareness and enrollment.
The Esparza team began the relationship by putting together a comprehensive marketing strategy and roadmap that would guide our efforts over the coming months as we tackled a new institutional spot, updated digital marketing efforts, traditional media placements and more. A roadmap was built to guide efforts and was adjusted as immediate needs and new projects emerged in collaboration with the UCAM team.
The Solution
To aid in an improved perception and awareness of UNM, Esparza was tasked with a brand new television spot that would speak to a variety of stakeholders — from UNM alumni, to teachers and leadership — while ultimately prioritizing prospective students. Using key insights about Generation Z, Esparza focussed on showing how the UNM lifestyle is about more than just an education, but having an impact on the world at large.
Esparza’s digital efforts consisted of social, search and display campaigns to target potential students and the parents of those students. Each campaign had different objectives:
For the College of Nursing, our campaign used granular interest and demographic targeting to reach potential BSN, Midwifery, and nursing students. Each campaign also had a remarketing component, retargeting individuals most likely to convert based on pixel, API, and CRM data. Our goal was to target potential students across all levels of the conversion funnel to ultimately increase awareness and applications.
The Results
Our combined digital marketing efforts across all platforms resulted in over 60 million impressions and 700,000 clicks, with a click through rate of 1.21% (15% higher than the industry average). Our College of Nursing specific campaign saw close to 6 million impressions and 56,152 clicks in just four months.
The new television spot received overwhelmingly positive feedback in both initial testing and at full release.
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