Originally posted at CK1
Month: March 2014
Presentation of Direct Mailer
Here is my video presentation!
Originally posted at Taylor Jurica- Gaylord Journalism Student
What is Perfection?
There will be a day in everyones career when they are given a task, with a deadline, that seems and might even be, mission impossible. There will be a day when what is imagined in your mind is produced by your hands. There will be a day when no one likes what you sleeplessly worked […]
Originally posted at Dusti-PR pubs
Mailer Assignment
For this assignment we needed to design a direct mail piece that OU recruitment services would send to a specific group.
The first one I did was a mailer designed to be sent to students who are considering graduate school. This would include people who are in an entry level job and people who are recent graduates. They would be mostly white and aged 21-24. This would include both men and women.
I started by doing some research on OU’s Grad College. They use the arch in the picture as part of their logo, so when I found that picture in the assets folder I based my whole design on that. I turned the card to portrait so that the picture would fit better and I utilized the fade in the sky color to further draw the eye “higher” and to create depth. I put a slight fade on the words at the top to match.
The header comes from a quote from the front page of the grad college website. I also included that quote on the back. I thought the tag line paired perfectly with the picture. I made sure to include the grad college logo under that and then of course I put the ou logo in the upper right. All about the brand with OU.
I created a pop out box to put text in. I used the color of the sky so that the box wouldn’t look too out of place. The text in the box is designed to make the public think about returning to school. The big picture idea is to drive traffic to the site. This is a big decision and this generation doesn’t make that decision based on a piece of mail but hopefully we could get them to go to the site, which has comprehensive info on grad school.
The back included the quote that I based the whole thing on and then the URL again to drive traffic to the site. I separated the mail portion by using the blue color from the front box. That let me leverage part of the back to help get the message across.
The second one I did was aimed at National Merit Scholars. OU is very focused on NMS. They even talk about them during football games. That says a lot.
I wanted the front to have a similar effect to my first project. I chose this picture because I thought that is was an iconic image of OU and its brand and it achieved that feeling of depth and going higher from bottom to top.
The text is the stat that OU puts out every chance it gets about NMS and being ranked #1. It is obvious that OU loves that stat and wants everyone to know about it. I then put “find out why” I wanted to link that stat with a reason for future students to care about it. I also put the URL for the same reason as the first mailer. I wanted them to go to the site so that they could get all the info that you can’t fit on a mailer.
On the back I used the same technique as the first mailer. Then I used the most important benefits that might convince a NMS to choose OU over other schools. These were the key points on OU’s NMS site so I used them on the mailer.
I struggled with the text on the front. I used the OU font for the URL and the tag line so that they would stand out. I used a simple sariff font for the stat because that seemed to be what OU uses on its sites. But then on the back I wanted an easy to read sans sariff that matched the clean look of the icons. I know that means I have 3 different fonts but I think they look good. The front font is the weakest but I tried a ton and never could find one that looked decent.
Originally posted at Wes Moody PR Publications
Assignment Two: Direct Mailers
I truly can’t believe how fast this semester is flying by. My second project for PR Pubs is now complete! For this assignment, we had to create two direct mailers for specific stakeholders going to OU. I chose to make one for incoming high school juniors and the other for students to learn about OU’s academics, so I specifically targeted National Merit Scholars.
When deciding what to do for both of these mailers, I sketched an outline of what I thought would look best and what I envisioned for these postcards. I first created the incoming high school junior direct mailer. On the front of the postcard, I used a picture of current OU students on campus to show the atmosphere of OU to the stakeholder. After looking through the prospective student pages on OU’s website, I found a sentence that said “The Only Thing Missing is You.” I really liked this, and decided to use it as my slogan. I used a Rockwell Bold Font to create an appealing, forward appearance and added the OU logo to the word “YOU.”
I made sure to put this in the upper left corner because it would blend and align with the rest of the picture and not block anything in the photo. I also kept the traditional OU crimson as the color of the font.
On the back of the postcard, I kept the right side of the card very simple by providing a spot for the postage, the address, and the return address. I aligned the postage and return address to be directly across from one another and positioned the address of the student in the middle of the card. I outlined these in a crimson red box to show they were divided and to keep it organized. On the left side of the postcard, I first created a crimson background to give contrast to the right side, which I left white. Then, I used a textured background to overlap the crimson and create a nostalgic feeling. I provided information about the upcoming OU Junior Day and personalized it to the student by saying “we want YOU and your family to visit us.” I explained what Junior Day was, and provided the link for students to go register online. All of the font on this side is in Arial regular because it looks like the official font of OU and is not as loud as Rockwell. I also made it black to offset the crimson background. Lastly, in the bottom left corner, I added a photo of a student who currently attends OU. I turned her towards the inside of the card to encompass her into the full picture, and added an informational box about her to show who she is. Below is this direct mailer:
For the second direct mailer, I focused on telling the National Merit Scholars about the OU program. On the front of the postcard, I used a picture of the beautiful Bizzell library. When I was a prospective student, I could not get over how gorgeous the library was, and loved to take pictures of it. It’s definitely one of my favorite buildings on campus, so I wanted to share it with these stakeholders. On the top of the photo, I changed the opacity to make it look a little faded and white so I could add the slogan and create contrast on the photo. I used the same slogan of “The Only Thing Missing is YOU” to create repetition between the two postcards. On the back of the postcard, I added information about the National Merit Scholar program here at OU. I kept the repetition of using the same design and style of the other postcard to show that the two direct mailers are related to each other. I think it’s important for them to look similar to each other so stakeholders know that they are coming from the same university. I changed the photo of the student to show variety at the college and how he is a National Merit Scholar. Additionally, I used another call to action of always providing the website and getting students to apply to our program. Below is the second direct mailer:
Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment because I liked creating something that relates to OU and making a direct mailer that would have been appealing to me, since I was a prospective student once upon a time. I think I improved on my use of space and making sure that the space is utilized for something important. Additionally, I think I have improved on my skills of using InDesign, which has definitely helped me. I know I still have more to learn, but I feel more confident in using it now. This assignment was different from the first assignment because we were focusing on different things. The letterhead and business card in assignment one would be utilized all the time for our personal use. Also, these documents would help stimulate recognition of our career and our organization. However, the direct mailer is being aimed at a specific group of people, and will help them learn more about OU. In both situations, the organization benefits from these documents, but they help the group in different ways. I thought the segmentation matrix was also a little difficult to understand, but it helped a little in learning which groups I should and should not target. In conclusion, this assignment was interesting to me, and I look forward to what we create next.
Originally posted at Megan Young - Gaylord Student
Assignment 2- Direct Mailer
Mailer TA 1 final Mailer TA 2 final The first mailer is directed toward current students who are interested in getting involved with the Student Life Organizations on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. The second mailer targets current students and other students who are interested in the traditions and spirit at the university. […]
Originally posted at Taylor Ashley's PR Pubs
Assignment 2- Direct Mailer
For this assignment, I geared my direct mailers to two different target audiences: Texas students who just graduated and have made advances to attend the University of Oklahoma and students that are considered National Merit Scholars.
For the direct mailer that I would plan to send to the Texas students, I made sure to talk about how this is their experience, that they would leave their footprint on this university. Sometimes schools forget that it is about that individual persons experience, that is why I put Begin YOUR Sooner Experience. I put the University of Oklahoma’s logo as the OU in your because I want them to start seeing that OU is in their experience. I made sure to use the photo at a football game because that is also what people think of when they think of the University of Oklahoma. It is an experience to attend one of the games, and an important experience at that.
I also used the same textures on both sides and used the university logo to add repetition.
For my direct mailer aimed at National Merit Scholars, I chose the picture of the seats to show that each seat is different. I used what seat will you take to emphasize that there are many things you can do at the University of Oklahoma, not all chair is the same because neither is every student. I made sure to emphasize the OU in you because that is what I want them to think about. When they look at the word you, I want them to immediately think of the University of Oklahoma. I made sure that the OU logo was faded behind the students address so that you can immediately know who it is coming from and it repeats the logo from the opposite side.
I learned a lot from the last assignment, that empty space is not wasted space, to make sure that your textures match, or at least don’t look like garbage, and to not be text heavy. I made sure to keep the texts the same so that way it all looks uniform. I also chose a text that I thought matched well with the University of Oklahoma text.
Originally posted at Claire White
Project 2 – Direct Mailers
For our second project in my Public Relations publications class, we worked on direct mailers. Direct mailers for the sake of this assignment were postcards that would hypothetically be sent out by OU’s recruitment services to students and/or parents.
For my direct mailers I chose two different audiences. The first was high school seniors, who have not decided on a college or university that were from southeastern Oklahoma. The second mailer was targeted toward parents who have children in their senior year of high school. The purpose of my mailers was to inform students and parents about their unique opportunities at OU. For example, the parents’ mailer gave information about how they can join the OU community through the parent’s club or parents’ weekends.
I chose my first audience of southeastern Oklahoma students for two reasons. The first is that I am from southeastern Oklahoma. The second is that I wanted to highlight a unique student organization I am a part of called SEOK Ambassadors. This is a registered student organization ran by the southeastern Oklahoma recruiter for OU. We realized there was a significant problem in our recruiting from the southeast, and have set up this organization to fix the problems many students from this area face. We have think tank session as well as created a scholarship for students from the area and a mentorship program for when they get to OU. The organization is something I am very passionate about since I am from the area, and I know first hand the struggles these students face in regards to higher education.
I had a little more pressure added to this assignment. I had emailed our advisor about using our logo for the assignment, and he told me he wants to see the finished product because recruitment services might use it, and send it out to students. This is very exciting, but nerve-racking at the same time. I have uploaded a picture of the front and back of the mailer. You can tell me what you think!
I chose my second audience of parents because I thought it correlated with parents of the students I was targeting, as well as parents from all over the world who are sending their child off to college. When parents send their children off to college they are usually sad and wish they could just pack up and go with them. OU is unique in the fact that they kind of can. OU has multiple ways for parents to be updated on the happenings on campus. I used the front of the mailer to talk about our parents’ association and our parents’ day weekends. I used the back of the mailer to appeal to both their logical and emotional needs. I used buzzwords about the university highlighting some of the great aspects of our campus. I also used emotional language such as “your child belongs here” to really get their attention, and have them research the University of Oklahoma. I have attached the front and back of that mailer as well.
Through this assignment I have learned a lot about targeting specific stakeholders and what appeals to them. With our design assignment we also did a segmenting stakeholder matrix. This was a chart that helped us really think about who are stakeholders were and what they wanted. I was able to use this the most with my parents direct mailer. Since I am not a parent, it can be difficult to know exactly what they would want. With the help of the chart; however, I was able to discover and tailor a message specifically to them.
Overall, I found this assignment to be very enjoyable. I am excited to give my assignment to the advisor of SEOK Ambassadors. The idea of OU actually printing my work is very exciting…keep your fingers crossed!
Originally posted at OU Public Relations Publications
Direct Mailers
This was a very interesting and helpful project when it comes to distinguishing publics and targeting the material toward each specific one.
I thought the front of the mailer should be simple and simply show a large high quality image of the university. Each has the logo on the from so that the recipient is sure of where the mail is coming from. I tried to show contrast where I could by applying gradients where possible and highlighting information by placing it inside a box outlined with a border. For the mailer that was directed toward children of alumni I wanted to come up with a clever phrase that would show that yes they are going to the same school as their parents but they are making their own path. I came up with “Continue the tradition, but make your own memories”
I liked the idea of student profiles so I used this on both and think it gives the prospective student a student face to put on the university. Finding backgrounds that worked and fit well was challenging but I ended on just a simple background for the alumni one with a notebook one as well to create some contrast. I like the background for the Gaylord College one being an old newspaper. I made sure to create as much repetition as possible by putting the OU logo in as many places as possible and using fonts consistently throughout both.
Overall it was a very good learning experience and I believe I have improved from the first project by being able to create repetition but also have the right amount of contrast in certain places. Stakeholder Matrix
Originally posted at Spenser Hicks's Blog
Assignment 2 – Direct Mailers
Over the last few weeks in my publications class we created direct mailers. This project was actually pretty fun, but I tell you I had no idea where I was going to start. The first thing was to identify the target audiences. For our project we had to use our school, The University of Oklahoma, and create something for an audience that could potentially be associated with OU.
I knew for sure that students would be the first target, but that is very broad so I limited the range to high school juniors. I chose to write about the educational options available at OU to help those in high school get acquainted with what the university has to offer and what they should look for when they apply next year as a senior. Here’s a look at the first direct mailer.
I wanted to stick with something that OU is known for doing design wise. The top of numerous mailers have the white ribbon bleeding off the page with The University of Oklahoma on it and they also use white horizontal lines to show what the focus is on. The only other thing I wanted to do with this mailer was stick to the colors and add a few drop shadows to the OU logos to make them stand out a bit.
For the second mailer, I chose to target parents who may have trouble supporting their child financially. I chose to write about the grants, scholarships, and Oklahoma’s Promise Commitment as available options parents can look into. Here’s a look at the second mailer.
On the design side, I wanted to make the mailer immediately target parents. I chose a photo that just capture the university and for the back I chose grid paper because I usually associate grids with math. So I figured since I was writing about financial options grids would fit well. Other than that I continued with the OU color scheme and tried to keep it simple.
I had a lot of fun doing this project. One last thing, I will say it is best to look for inspiration when designing a direct mailer. I used this mailer I found on Pinterest for inspiration.
I also used direct mailers that we’ve had in the past at OU. But yes, use tons of inspiration and figure out your audiences and narrow them as much as possible. Hope you all enjoyed this post and the mailers I created.
-Tori
Originally posted at Tori Beechum - PR Pubs