Students' concerns aired in ads

A new University advertising campaign will be based on questions high school students have as they search for colleges, based on questions current students had when they were looking for colleges.\nThe University will spend about $625,000 to create and air the commercials -- about 20 percent less than it spent last year on its advertising campaign. Last year's campaign helped generate record enrollments this fall at several IU campuses.\n"The theme is based on the concept that students come to a university to seek knowledge and answer questions," said Sandra Conn, IU assistant vice president for public affairs and government relations and the campaign's creative director.\nFor the campaign, 40 IU students were asked they wanted to learn while pursuing their studies at the University. Then the campaign team visited the places where those students sought that knowledge, including a music practice room, library, child care center, computer lab and a swimming pool where IU faculty and students study the factors that contribute to improved athletic performance.\nAs there were no actors to pay and much of the creative and technical input was provided by University professional, the ad itself cost only $109,000 to produce versus the estimated $180,000 normal costs of a similar ad, according to a press release.\nThree vendors involved with the project provided their services at cost. BBDS, a Chicago advertising firm, an account executive Dennis Gillespie has ties to IU, having previously been an advertising professor in the School of Journalism. He worked on the project pro bono.\nBBDS was chosen from among 26 ad firms who responded to a request for proposals put out by the University. \nThe ad features a fast-paced sequence of students engaged in research activities on campus while different students pose their real questions, such as "What does the human genome look like?"; "How do you take a company public?"; and "Can you really teach creativity?"\nIU has conducted regular advertising campaigns since 1997. Before that, the University kept a generic ad on hand to run during sporting events. The campaign's aim is twofold: to reach prospective students and parents and to explain the University's value to the general public.\nIndianapolis-based Perkins-Nichols Media has purchased $513,000 worth of television time on stations statewide and in Chicago and Louisville to broadcast the campaign between now and mid-January. Plans also call for another round of advertising in June and July, when the majority of students who might be considering regional campuses decide to attend college and apply for admission.