Ithaca College

Ithaca College’s Ready advertising campaign has been awarded the highest level of recognition by the Association of Communicators in Education (CUPRAP).

The annual “CUPPY” competition recognizes the superior communication efforts of higher education institutions. Over 300 entries are accepted and judged each year by experts in the field of communications in education.

The Office of Marketing Communications launched the award-winning advertising campaign in August 2011. The campaign is based on an ever-growing collection of student, alumni, and faculty success stories. The stories all showcase ways that Ithaca College has prepared its students and alumni to be forward-thinking, professional, well-prepared, and ready for the future. A variety of advertising media are utilized in the campaign to promote the Ready-themed stories, and all of the advertisements in the campaign push traffic to a Ready-themed microsite (ithaca.edu/ready). The Office of Marketing Communications, in conjunction with Information Technology Services, also built a mobile-friendly version of the microsite.

Some of the advertising vehicles utilized in the campaign include:

• Full-page color free-standing inserts (FSIs), which appeared in the New York Times in select zip codes in the Finger Lakes and NYC regions, showcasing individual stories and photos of students and alumni.
• Facebook advertisements, which used demographic data to target prospective students and alumni. The alumni-focused advertisements encouraged viewers to visit the Ready microsite and submit their own story about how IC made them ready.
• NPR underwriting.
• Online advertisements on the New York Times website, ESPN.com, select ComScore Top 100 sites, Google and more.