Pitt Business: Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business & College of Business Administration

Press Release

June 25, 2007

Pitt Student Marketing Agency Earns High Praise in the Goal Financial Collegiate Marketing Challenge

Undergraduate students generated 600 percent return on investment through integrated marketing campaign

PITTSBURGH—"College is tough… Financing it shouldn’t be," was the opinion shared by 20 marketing students from the Pitt College of Business Administration. During the spring 2007 semester, students in Associate Professor of Marketing Robert Gilbert’s Projects in Marketing class teamed up with Goal Financial, LLC—the nation’s ninth largest holder of federal student loans—to develop an integrated marketing communications campaign aimed at informing students on the University’s Oakland campus of the options for education financing and loan consolidation.

Students organized a working marketing agency, called PROs in MOTION with the goal of developing and implementing an integrated marketing communications campaign using both traditional and nontraditional advertising approaches—such as creating a proprietary Web site, producing several videos that aired on You Tube as well as their proprietary Web site, and hosting the Debt-inator Seminar (a free education financing seminar) that attracted more than 110 students—to generate awareness and increase traffic to Goal Financial’s Web site.

The Goal Financial Collegiate Marketing Challenge was designed to bridge the gap between industry and education, providing students with valuable, hands-on experience. The program was coordinated by EdVenture Partners, a California-based education marketing consultancy that designs unique industry-education challenges on campuses throughout the United States. EdVenture Partners, in conjunction with Goal Financial, provided student agencies, like PROs in MOTION, with the necessary resources to design and implement their marketing campaigns, in this case $2,500.

"The challenge allows students to step out of the traditional classroom setting and apply marketing theories in a real world scenario," Gilbert commented. "It’s a win-win situation for both Goal Financial and the students."

The Pitt student agency had tremendous success with their marketing campaign. The main campaign measure used by Goal Financial was the number of Campaign Response Forms (CRFs) generated by each school. The CRF was located on Goal Financial's Web site, and was filled out by students who wanted to talk to a Goal Financial representative about college financing. Pitt generated 154 qualified CRFs, more than any of the five other schools participating in the program. In addition, the Pitt agency’s post-campaign research showed that, as a result of their campaign, unaided awareness of Goal Financial increased from zero to 27 percent and aided awareness of Goal Financial increased from one to 36 percent. PROs in MOTION turned EdVenture Partners’ and Goal Financial’s $2,500 investment into $15,000 in added value—a 600 percent return.

Three representatives of PROs in MOTION—Michael Long, Tim Macken, and Heather Meabon—and the student agency from the University of Illinois were invited to make a final presentation to Goal Financial executives in San Diego, California, May 23.

"The Pitt team blew away the competition," said Dawn Leijon, Goal Financial’s director of consumer segment marketing. "The video they made was great. It got to the heart of how students feel about student loans, and how Goal Financial can help students take care of their debt burden. The Pitt team did everything—flyers, seminars, events, Web site, video, ads, posters, news releases—and they tied it all together with a mascot and theme, leading to a great awareness-building campaign. The student presenters who came to Goal Financial headquarters in San Diego were polished and professional. Their presentation made a huge impact on senior management. Afterwards, both our president and CEO sent me guidance to expand the program based on Pitt’s ideas and success."