Category Update
For-profit Educators Ring Bell For Sponsorship
For-profit educators seek opportunities to showcase offerings to wide range of prospective students.
9/8/08: With consumers concerned about having the necessary skills and credentials to find a position or advance in their careers amid a tight job market, postsecondary education companies continue to flourish and to seek sponsorship opportunities to differentiate themselves and recruit new students.
The popularity of for-profit educational institutions has risen steadily. The number of students enrolled in degree-granting for-profit postsecondary schools more than doubled from ’00 to ’05–from 450,084 to 1,010,949–according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, which expects the number to keep growing.
In addition to the existing portfolios of local and regional deals held by some of the major players in the category, recent activity of note includes the launch of a significant sponsorship program by DeVry Inc. and national deals by Apollo Group, Inc.’s University of Phoenix, which already owns the largest tie in the category: 20-year, $154 million naming rights for the NFL Arizona Cardinals stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
DeVry has signed deals with more than 10 properties and is planning more, while University of Phoenix is sponsoring the 43-stop Back2School tour headlined by pop/rock singer/songwriter Kate Voegele, as well as Lifetime Networks’ Every Woman Counts 11-stop bus tour, which promotes female involvement in the electoral process.
DeVry Launches First Sponsorship Program
Looking to better connect with its target audience, DeVry over the past year has signed sponsorships ranging from pro sports teams to community festivals to music venues.
Ties include the Kentucky Derby Festival; MLS Houston Dynamo and Los Angeles Galaxy; the NBA Philadelphia 76ers; NFL Jacksonville Jaguars; Tampa, Fla.’s Ford Amphitheater; and a Cypress Hill benefit concert for homeless youth at Chicago’s House of Blues.
The company plans to sign additional deals, said president David Pauldine. “Absolutely, we have a few in the pipeline.”
DeVry offers associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in technology, business and healthcare through DeVry University, as well as master’s degrees in business under its Keller Graduate School of Management brand. Including its nursing, medicine and veterinary schools, the company operates 92 campuses in 26 states, Canada and the Caribbean.
The company’s sponsorship push originated two years ago at the behest of CEO Dave Hamburger, Pauldine said.
“We started to look at our marketing formula and we realized the world has changed and it’s time for us to become more progressive. An innovative approach to generating brand awareness has to include sponsorship,” Pauldine said.
Unlike traditional media, sponsorship provides an opportunity to communicate with consumers on their own terms, he said. “This is about making contact–not pushing a message.”
DeVry last year created a new position to oversee its sponsorship activity, as well as other joint marketing initiatives. That job is held by Amanda Geist, director of partnership marketing.
DeVry’s three key sponsorship objectives are:
Reach Hispanics. DeVry aligned with the Dynamo and Galaxy–and expanded an existing relationship with the MLS Chicago Fire–to reach Latinos, a key audience. “Soccer is an excellent medium for reaching Hispanics,” Pauldine said.
The cost associated with sponsoring MLS teams also is inexpensive compared to many other pro sports franchises, he added. “It’s not expensive like Major League Baseball.”
DeVry chose the three markets because they have both large concentrations of Latinos and DeVry locations. The company operates 12 campuses in Chicago, seven in Los Angeles and three in Houston.
In addition to soccer, DeVry last year sponsored the Latin Grammys. The company used the tie to distribute branded mobile phone holders and other giveaways, as well as to entertain Hispanic educators and administrators “because of their ability to represent the university to a wider Latino audience of cultural decision-makers,” said Melanie Wright, regional PR director-East Region, who coordinated the partnership.
The company has not yet decided whether it will renew the deal, Pauldine said.
Promote new campuses. DeVry increasingly is using sponsorship to generate awareness around new campus openings.
“We’ve built PR and sponsorship into our start-up budgets,” Pauldine said.
Case in point: DeVry titled the Derby Festival Night of Future Stars three-on-three high school basketball event in April to promote its new campus in Louisville. It also sponsored the Jaguars to promote a new campus in Jacksonville.
Build prospect database. DeVry sees sponsorship as an excellent vehicle for gathering contact information for its prospect database.
For example, the company has leveraged its ties with the Dynamo, Fire and Galaxy with on-site booths where consumers can sign up to receive autographed balls and jerseys.
“Their main objective was data collection–getting names,” said Bryan Kraham, the Dynamo’s senior director of corporate development.
In Florida, DeVry activated its sponsorship of the Jags with promotions that offered tickets to the NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii and the NFL Draft in New York City. Consumers entered the latter promotion at DevryDraftDay.com.
The promotions gained media coverage in The Florida Times-Union and other local media, Wright said.
How Sponsorship Works At DeVry
DeVry initially tracked the number of prospective student leads generated by its sponsorships to determine success, but is graduating to tracking conversion rates of those leads.
“We’re maturing in our understanding of how this works,” Pauldine said. “We’re coming off the intensity of our database. We still track that, but we realize there is more to establishing our brand and building credibility.”
When it comes to vetting proposals, DeVry’s local, regional and national marketing managers review sponsorship opportunities. Those staffers forward potential leads to Geist for approval.
Local marketing personnel include Kari Iannantuoni, director of local marketing for Chicago, Merrillville, Ind. and Wisconsin; and Joseph Nardellia, metro marketing director for Florida.
PR staff also spearhead deals. For example, Wright led DeVry’s Latin Grammys sponsorship.
To ensure internal buy-in, DeVry has created a team of marketing personnel and faculty to provide feedback on sponsorship opportunities. “If our faculty doesn’t buy in, the sponsorship could break down,” Pauldine said, noting that faculty could provide lectures, symposiums or other content and activities to sponsored properties.
Other big players in the for-profit education segment include Capella Education Co.; Career Education Corp.; Corinthian Colleges, Inc.; Education Management Corp.; ITT Educational Services, Inc.; Lincoln Educational Services Corp.; and Strayer Education, Inc.
Tips On Selling Postsecondary Education Companies
To hit the hot buttons of schools, properties should:
Account for different targets. Postsecondary education companies target both working adults who do not have college degrees and current high school students and recent graduates, so they may be in the market for opportunities to reach either or both of those groups.
Also, most players in the category offer distance learning through online educational options, with many seeking to discuss those offerings through on-site demonstrations.
Know who to pitch. Sponsorship decision-making at most of the large for-profit educators is decentralized. Local offices or individual campuses typically sign their own deals; marketing departments and admissions offices tend to be the primary points of entry and funding sources.
Help enhance reputations. With some for-profit education companies facing accreditation and regulatory investigations, the category needs to overcome perceptions that its schools are more interested in cashing checks than in educating students.
Sources
DeVry Inc., Tel: 630/571-7700
MLS Houston Dynamo, Tel: 713/276-7500