NEWS & UPDATES

July 3, 2008 In Archives By Advent

Campus Facility Branding and Experiential Marketing

In today′s world mak­ing a last­ing impres­sion doesn′t always have to be all about consumer-based prod­ucts. Many col­leges are turn­ing to Expe­ri­en­tial Mar­ket­ing to help make a last­ing impres­sion on both cur­rent and prospec­tive students.

Recently Advent was asked to help Lip­scomb Uni­ver­sity cre­ate a branded space to help wrap stu­dents in “a Lip­scomb expe­ri­ence.” There were a lot of dif­fer­ent direc­tions this space could have gone in, but Advent asked the uni­ver­sity to get some input from their stu­dents on what they felt was needed on cam­pus and this is what they came back with:

1. Healthy food choices
2. A place where both males and females were com­fort­able hang­ing out
3. A space that could be a mul­ti­pur­pose venue

Advent set out with those goals in mind and began to brain­storm about the space. The space needed to be unique, and needed to some­thing that stu­dents didn′t have access to in their dorm rooms. After­ing doing some ini­tal research one team mem­ber found that cereal “bars” were becom­ing pop­u­lar around col­lege cam­puses, and there wasn′t one in Nashville. Then to add a twist, not only could Lip­scomb offer cereal but also candy top­pings and ice cream. That would give the stu­dents the choice to be healthy, fun or both with their food. Another team mem­ber found some really cool fur­ni­ture made out of recy­cled bicy­cle parts. We also thought it would be cool to incor­po­rate 60″ plas­mas with Wiis for the stu­dents. While the col­lege stu­dents may have Wiis in their dorm rooms, they prob­a­bly didn′t have 60″ plas­mas tele­vi­sions. At that point we knew we were headed in the right direction.

To make it a true Lip­scomb branded space we devel­oped the con­cept of a mural that showed “a Lip­scomb expe­ri­ence.” Pho­tos used in the mural would show all types of stu­dent based activ­i­ties, from sport­ing events to mis­sion trips. This was the Expe­ri­en­tial Mar­ket­ing piece that Lip­scomb was look­ing for. It wrapped stu­dents and vis­i­tors in the Lip­scomb “brand.” It showed what it was like to be a part of that university.

After the grand open­ing Lip­scomb called Advent to tell us what a suc­cess the space had been for them. Stu­dents love the food offer­ings, the enter­tain­ment, and just hang­ing out in there. It has even become the last stop on prospec­tive stu­dent tours.

Authored By Advent

Advent partners with organizations to help them visually express differentiation.