montana state university alumni association

classic traditions and new ones

The Montana State University (MSU) Alumni Association, established in 1903, is a membership body that works each and every day to keep graduates and friends of the university connected to one another and to their alma mater. After speaking to the client, we could hear the frustration in their voice as they felt that everyone who had any desire to become a member had already done so. Now, they were stuck trying to effectively market to a group of alumni with a very low inclination to join.

After cleansing, appending, segmentation and predictive modeling were done on our anylitic data, we came to three tiers of alumni ranging from high to low potential, and created a campaign we felt would resonate across the board: “Remembering Classic Traditions… so New Ones Can be Made.”

Each marketing piece was customized according to tier, leveraging images of past iconic MSU traditions. Photographs and messaging were adjusted to be specific to the tier the recipient belonged to, so that the creative resonated and messaging inspired. Personalized direct mail and emails were developed with customized messaging for each tier. For the top, most promising tier, we created a memory box containing full-color printed stone coasters with images of iconic MSU Events, Polaroid pictures of some of their classic traditions, and a personalized letter appealing the recipient to join.

For every direct mail sent, an email followed that mimicked the direct mail creative. The result was a cohesive campaign that created an emotional connection and evoked response. Up until this campaign, MSU had a constant struggle in achieving measurable results from their marketing initiatives. We are happy to have been the agency to help break this streak with a 200% higher response rate over any other campaign historically run for the Alumni Association.