Northern Virginia Community College

Creative that Wins Audiences’ Attention

This campaign is a central component of our comprehensive integrated marketing plan for NOVA. One of the driving strategies is to “Win Audiences’ Attention.” Since it is cost-prohibitive in NOVA’s heavily saturated media market to buy audiences’ attention, this “Settle for…” campaign aims to win their attention through creative that’s arresting and memorable.

A Campaign with Legs

Several design elements serve as stylistic motifs throughout these commercials and across “Settle for…” campaign ads, unifying the campaign across all channels. All the ads feature individuals against nondescript white backdrops, while VisionPoint’s hand-drawn graffiti animations add personality and power to the ads’ various messaging points.

Bringing the NOVA Brand Personality to Life

Along with specific brand messages about cost value (“Settle” for More Moolah), great teachers (“Settle” for Rockstar Faculty), and job-ready graduates (“Settle” for Competing Job Offers), the playfulness of the animations, the music quality, the careful casting, and light-hearted script balance out the campaign’s necessarily sarcastic tone. This is intentional, as NOVA’s brand personality is “confident, even a bit defiant,” but also “clever and good-humored.”

Strength in Numbers

While the creative work may command the spotlight, the campaign itself was powered by data. We relied on qualitative and quantitative research to shape brand messaging, measure changes in audience perception as proof of ROI, identify growth opportunities for key programs, and help NOVA realize a fully data-driven marketing effort.