University of Pennsylvania

Penn’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions first approached CCA in 1998 about reengineering its recruitment strategy and repositioning the University vis-à-vis its Ivy League competitors.

During our partnership with Penn, we produced a variety of award-winning, admissions-focused publications, including a custom travel piece and an international student viewbook. We also continued to evolve the University’s brand position, emphasizing Penn’s accessibility, intellectual innovation, and unique interdisciplinary and dual-degree options.

Most recently, CCA completed a new social media project for the University of Pennsylvania, as part of a fall campaign to promote early decision. In conjunction with print- and email-based search outreach, CCA produced a series of videos of current Penn students, recent graduates, and the Dean of Admissions to highlight key aspects of the University’s brand positioning platform (cross-disciplinary studies, service, innovation, urban location, etc.). We also integrated the social media platforms to share and disseminate the videos and written content on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter (along with regularly updated blogs and live chats with those featured students and the Dean). The goals of this initiative were to increase applications and to maintain engagement with prospective students from application through enrollment.

The admissions-recruitment materials we produced for Penn have helped the University achieve steady growth in undergraduate applications, including a17 percent increase in applications for the class entering in 2010. The 2009 “Your Ivy” search campaign represented a major step forward in Penn’s use of social media, leading to a 7 percent rise in early-decision applications, one of the biggest increases in the Ivy League.  The “Your Ivy” search microsite went on to win a Best of Show in the 2010 Higher Education Advertising Awards.