OSHE Some College, No Degree Campaign

The Office of Innovation is working with the NJ State Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) to launch the Some College, No Degree (SCND) campaign encouraging New Jersey students, who started college, but left before finishing their degree, to return. This work is being undertaken by OOI’s C+E Lab.

Challenge

Roughly 1 million New Jerseyans have started college, but stopped before completing their degree. The State, led by OSHE, has launched a suite of financial assistance and coaching tools to help these individuals to return to school and earn their degree.

Innovation In Action

To help the OSHE project team persuade non-returning students to re-enroll in higher education, the C+E Lab was tasked with helping create a marketing campaign to drive awareness and uptake of these programs and services. The C+E lab conducted ethnographic research to understand the target audience’s underlying motivations. This research then informed the creation of a communication strategy and marketing materials designed to encourage these individuals to return to college and complete their degree. The C+E Lab worked in an advisory capacity with OSHE to execute the paid media campaign, as well as subsequent optimization of the campaign’s ongoing performance.

Impact + Metrics

• The C+E Lab’s research shifted OSHE’s understanding of their target audience, and revealed that the State’s originally-intended approach might not motivate students to return and could be potentially alienating.
• Based on its research, the C+E Lab developed a communication strategy that reframed the State’s narrative and recommended media channels and budgets to meet the audience where they are.
• Also based on its research, the C+E Lab developed creative themes that brought the communication strategy to life, and quantitatively validated the content as most effective in creating awareness and intent, and that it was equitable in its appeal.
• More than 91MM impressions have been delivered, with 64% of campaign impressions delivered to members of underserved communities.
• Traffic from underserved communities have been delivered at a +618% rate vs. traffic from other audiences.
• As of early December 2023, the campaign has connected more than 60,000 potential learners with key resources and information to help them re-enroll and complete their degree.
• The campaign has boasted a 41% conversion rate on Meta, which was the top performing lead generating source in the campaign.

Status

• The paid media campaign is slated to end in 2023.

Partners

• NJ State Office of the Secretary of Higher Education

Last updated on 12/19/23