Originally posted at CK1
Category Archives: Assignment 2
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
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
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
Assignment Two: Direct Mailers
Our second major assignment for Public Relations Publications challenged us to create two different direct mail pieces aimed at stakeholders for OU Recruitment Services.
The two different demographics I targeted with my mailers were incoming University of Oklahoma freshmen from the North Texas metropolitan area and parents of incoming University of Oklahoma freshmen from the North Texas metropolitan area.
For my first mailer, I tried to create a piece that utilized photos to show how much fun OU students have and gave brief text summaries of different ways these prospective freshman could get involved on campus.
For my second mailer, I aimed to appeal to the emotions of parents letting their children go off to college, giving visuals referring to Oklahoma and using the tagline “Far away enough to visit… But still close enough to call home!”
I personally found this assignment to be much more challenging than the first. Arranging the different pieces of my mailers was a challenge, but I support my finished product. I utilized various clean, borderless photos for a clean look and kept my text font constant to invoke repetition.
I’m going to sleep now.
Prospective Student Direct Mailer
Prospective Student Parent Direct Mailer
Originally posted at Nick Edwards
Assignment 2- Mailers
This second assignment that was assigned in my PR Publications class was to make two postcards that would be sent to stakeholders. For this assignment I had to really hone in on exactly which stakeholders would receive this mailer and how the message would directly target them.
For my first mailer I decided to make a postcard for the University of Oklahoma’s Panhellenic Association Formal Recruitment that happens every fall semester. This organization oversees and monitors the 11 different sororities that are here on OU’s campus. This mailer is made specifically for women who are 17-23 that have been accepted to the university. This demographic is looking for how they can get involved when they arrive and Greek life is a great way to do that. I kept the design very colorful and fun so that is caught the eye of a woman who was in this age range. I filled the front with pictures and made the design look like a collage, almost as if it was a bulletin board that they could have in their room. I wanted these women to see these pictures and feel like they could be in them or these could be pictures that they could put up on their wall someday. With all the color on the front I kept the back very simple but repeated the use of the bright pink and orange to tie it to the design on the front. I separated the information into the who, what, when, and where about Formal Recruitment. I felt that this would be the best way to answer their questions and then refer them to the Panhellenic’s webpage to learn more, or register to take part in Formal Recruitment.
The second mailer I made was specifically for parents, around ages 38-50, whose daughter have registered for Formal Recruitment. Most parents are pretty clueless when it comes to being apart of a sorority or fraternity so I wanted to make a mailer that gave them a few positive statistics about it and then refer them to the Panhellenic’s webpage to learn more about what their daughter might be apart of. I made this a lot cleaner because I wanted it to look more official. I went with a crimson and white color scheme to match other mailers that parents may have received so they would feel comfortable about it being from the university. I didn’t want it to seem too busy, but I still wanted to keep the idea of having a lot of pictures that they could see their daughter possibly taking part of in the near future. The back is very simple and more a teaser with some information to get parents to start looking into the Greek system and what it is all about.
This assignment was quite a challenge for me. At first I had no clear idea how I wanted either of these mailers to look, which was the opposite in the last assignment I did. I knew that my stakeholders were very clear and wanted the same information, but different designs appealed to each demographic. I learned a lot about using the drop shadow and rotate abilities on inDesign with this assignment, which I really enjoyed. After I played around with both designs and put pictures in different places I finally ended up with two front designs that I was happy with. The back side of each mailer was really easy since I wanted to keep it simple but stay with a similar color scheme. All in all I’m very happy with the way both turned out.
Originally posted at Mary Morton- PR Publications Course