Challenge: Current student loan debt in the United States has topped $1.5 trillion, second only to that of mortgages. Yet fewer than one third of Americans are aware of a valuable tool, backed by states, that provides parents from every walk of life a way to save for higher education.
Solution: To help reduce this burden on future generations, we partnered with the College Savings Plans Network, a nationwide association of all fifty states and their financial partners who administer 529 college savings plans, tax-advantaged ways to save for higher education. To start, we created a new national parent brand for 529 College Savings Plans. We then leveraged the brand to help fundraise monetary support for a national awareness campaign, something that had been a goal of CSPN for more than a decade. To help reach our target demographic of young parents, we recommended a partnership with Fred Rogers Productions, founded by Mister Rogers and the company behind Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, the number one kids' show on PBS. Across the country, every episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood would feature our 15-second spots. But to truly get noticed, the spots would need to buck the typical “proud supporter of…” tropes and instead create an emotional experience with visual magic. To achieve the illusion of seamless childhood growth, we created a rotating-platform with two concentric turntables that spun in opposite directions, allowing us to tell the stories in one continuous shot.
While the TV spots would be the main driver of awareness, a microsite was crafted to share our movement with as many people as possible. 529forCollege.com would house custom content, articles and stories to help educate visitors on the benefits of 529s and how they too could join the movement. We generated a conversation nationwide with targeted PR efforts, but also created a toolkit to give each contributing partner the ability to create their own buzz with videos, social calendars and even custom Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood collateral that helped explain the importance of saving.
National 529 College Savings Plans Identity
Brand Standards Manual
Social Images
529forCollege.com Microsite
Social Images
Custom Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Introduction to Savings Content
Forbes Coverage of Campaign Launch
New York Times Coverage of Campaign Efforts
2020 Final Campaign Report
Results: In the first week alone, we generated press the equivalent of 4% of our total 18-month ad buy and we increased the College Savings Plan Network’s social media engagements by 40 times. The microsite delivered promising results as well. Visitors spent an average of four minutes on the site (industry standard is 2:30) and the site registered a four percent bounce rate (versus the industry standard of 30 – 40 percent).
At the halfway mark, we registered a 4% increase in national awareness, with 2019 ending with 14.25 million accounts (growing 3.2%) and over $371.5 billion in total assets, a record 19% increase year-over-year.
By the time the campaign was over in August of 2020, we had more than exceeded our goals. From our post-campaign survey, we tracked an increase in nationwide 529 awareness by 40%, from 32% to 45% (exceeding our goal of 42%,) and an increase of 529 plan utilization from 12% to 16% (exceeding our goal of 15%). We also ended the campaign with nearly 200 million impressions from our partnership with Fred Rogers Productions and nearly a million impressions from our social media efforts.
Agency: Bozell
Role: Creative Director
Role: Creative Director
