Arts and humanities admissions teams around the country have been wrestling with enrolment challenges for over a decade, but the current climate has given rise to a new set of obstacles. A potent blend of factors define the post-Covid higher ed market — low unemployment levels, increasing cost of living, declining numbers of college-age students and worsening cultural attitudes towards the value of humanities degrees. Colleges are modernising their marketing and recruitment strategies in order to outmanoeuvre these challenges.

In 2023, GSU College of Arts and Humanities partnered with Hybrid Media to do just that.

With a shrinking prospect pool, colleges need to invest in inventive ways to increase market share. Through proprietary audience mapping tools, Hybrid employed predictive modelling to identify GSU’s high-yield audiences or ‘missed potential’. In conjunction with IPEDS, National Student Clearinghouse, US News and GSU CRM data, these tools produced accurate, high-return geo-targeting strategies for the College of Arts and Humanities.

In a saturated market-place, campaign creative needs to be dynamic, attention-grabbing and in touch with audience drivers. Our creatives developed content that communicated GSU’s message in more powerful ways. Our research showed that GSU humanities prospects were concerned about the ‘career utility’ of a degree — we rolled out design, video and messaging that showcased how GSU enables students to ‘harness’ their passion and utilise their creativity in fulfilling careers.