Connelly Partners was included in AdAge this week, announcing the acquisition of McCarthy Mambro Bertino, a creative agency that has worked with Subway, Sam Adams and Toyota. Financial terms were not disclosed. MMB will retain its brand within Connelly Partners.

Read more from AdAge.

Boston, MA – August 19, 2025 — Independent agency Connelly Partners (CP) is deepening its commitment to a performance-plus-creative model for brands, grounded in measurable business outcomes. CP has acquired McCarthy Mambro Bertino (MMB), the award-winning creative agency behind campaigns for Subway, Sam Adams, and Toyota. The agency has also won a series of global client wins and added key talent across its Boston, Dublin, and Vancouver hubs.

This growth reflects a larger industry shift as brands look for agencies that can unite creative storytelling, media expertise, and data-driven decision-making under one roof.

“We have always been committed to relentless creativity and measurable accountability in our work.” said Steve Connelly, President and Copywriter at Connelly Partners. “The moves we are making and the talent we are bringing aboard are reflections of that commitment.”

Welcoming MMB to the CP Network 

With a 20+ year legacy and deep roots in Boston’s creative scene, MMB joins CP’s global independent micro-network. The agency’s work has earned recognition from the Clio Awards, Emmys, Effies, The One Show, and more. 

MMB’s category experience includes Automotive, QSR, Retail, Sports and Healthcare, working with brands like Toyota, Subway, Sam Adams, Yale New Haven Health System, Newell Rubbermaid (Elmer’s and Brute), Foster Grant, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and more. 

MMB will retain its brand within CP, while tapping into the network’s full suite of services to expand its offerings for larger clients. The MMB team will also build towards integrating across the CP network – as ZOO Digital and VRX Studios have done. 

Fred Bertino, MMB Co-Founder and President, will continue to lead the MMB brand within CP, reporting to Steve Connelly. A former President and CCO at Hill Holliday, Bertino helped scale that agency to over $1.2 billion in revenue before co-founding MMB. 

“MMB and Connelly Partners have been successful rivals for two decades. Coming up as creatives, both Steve and I share a fervent love and belief in the power of insight-based creativity to propel brand and business growth,” said Bertino. “Now we’ll amplify that with deeper strategic and performance chops and global reach. By partnering with CP, we’re bringing clients full-service capabilities with the creative they’ve come to know us by.”

David Register, longtime creative lead at MMB, joins CP as Executive Creative Director. He brings a wealth of storytelling, writing, and directing experience to the agency, with a portfolio that includes iconic campaigns like Fidelity’s “Keep Doing What You Love,” featuring Paul McCartney and Progressive’s “Flo,” as well as work for Aetna, New Balance, and CenturyLink. He reports to Chief Creative Officer, Alyssa Toro. 

Momentum in Client Growth Globally 

CP’s offering is resonating as more brands look to consolidate agency partners under one roof, seeking a balance between bold creative work and measurable business outcomes. The agency is now working with: 

Pollock Clinics: A world-leading men’s sexual health brand. With corporate clinics in Vancouver and some 25+ franchised clinics spanning North America, Ireland, and Australia, the brand is now expanding into the UK and Middle East. CP was awarded the performance marketing business for the corporate brand (Digital Media, Web, SEO, Analytics) as Pollock consolidates agency partners under one integrated agency to support future growth ambitions and continued brand evolution. CP will also support brand strategy, creative, social and influencer marketing on project-by-project as the business scales. CP’s Vancouver office led the win following a year-long strategy engagement, with support now extending across all three of the agency’s global hubs.

Yale New Haven Health: Connecticut’s largest healthcare system, and the teaching hospital affiliate of Yale School of Medicine, has awarded its media & analytics business, including integrated media strategy, planning, execution and measurement, to Connelly Partners. The health system has been a client of MMB since early 2020 and the move now consolidates all MarCom efforts under the network umbrella — including brand strategy, creative, and integrated media planning and execution. 

Another health win: Continuing CP’s momentum in the health space, the agency has been named a performance marketing partner for a leading supplier to the global Life Science industry. 

As a result, CP’s Health business has increased 65% YoY, fueled by both new business and organic growth.

“In today’s world of fragmented consumer attention, clients need more than isolated media buying or creative concepts; they need holistic, evidence-based strategies,” said Michelle Capasso, Chief Media Officer. “Our strength lies in precisely that: unifying insights, storytelling, and execution to deliver tangible business outcomes.”

Strategic Talent Investments

To support this growth and evolving client needs, CP has made several leadership hires.

Jen Hansen joined as Director of Analytics. Jen brings a wealth of experience from her previous roles, including VP, Marketing Optimization and Analytics at Constant Contact and Global Head of Business Analytics at Vistaprint. In her new role, Jen spearheads CP’s efforts to elevate measurement, empowering clients worldwide to unlock critical insights and make more confident, data-driven decisions. This strategic appointment lays the groundwork for advanced capabilities, including forecasting, predictive analytics, and machine learning, to further enhance our offerings. Jen reports to Michelle Capasso, Chief Media Officer.

Jimmy Murphy becomes Deputy Managing Director, Dublin. One of Ireland’s most respected advertising leaders, Jimmy joins from ACNE Dublin, part of Deloitte Digital where he served as Chief Commercial Officer. He’s also held roles across Publicis Dublin, The Hive, alcohol brand marketing compliance organization CopyClear, the Marketing Society, and IAPI. He reports to Dublin Managing Director Vaunnie McDermott. 

Sam Moorhouse and Mikey Fleming,  join as Co-Creative Directors. They’ve been a creative team since 2011, partnering at TBWA/Ireland, Boys + Girls, and later founding Verve’s in-house agency, Showrunner. Their work for brands like Three Mobile, Aldi, SKODA, Lyons Tea, Tayto, VHI, and LEGO have earned multiple awards. They join David Register, legendary ECD Mike Garner, digital specialist and CD Chris Preston, and CCO Alyssa Toro, under a unified global creative offering.

Two of the biggest names in Boston’s advertising circles have teamed up.

Connelly Partners announced on Tuesday that it has acquired McCarthy Mambro Bertino, a smaller ad agency and longtime neighbor in the South End, for an undisclosed amount. MMB cofounder Fred Bertino will work with Connelly Partners chief executive Steve Connelly, overseeing a marketing group that will keep the MMB name; partner Jamie Mambro has sold his stake and is no longer involved.

They’re two of the largest independent agencies in Boston, in an industry that’s often dominated by the mega holding companies like Omnicom and IPG (which are in the midst of their own, much bigger merger).

Connelly and Bertino have long shared the same parking lot, working in buildings owned by Mario Nicosia’s GTI properties.

“Freddie would park his car and turn left, I would park my car and turn right, and we would have lunch every now and then,” Connelly said.

In the past year, Bertino moved MMB into Connelly’s spacious digs at 46 Waltham St., and the two firms began bidding on jobs together.

“We’ve had a chance to ‘date’ while living together,” Connelly said. “It just kept making more and more sense. We were pitching things together. He was using our folks. We were using his folks.”

The two have known each other since the 1990s when they both worked for other firms, Connelly at Ingalls Advertising and Bertino at Hill Holliday. Both launched their own firms around the turn of the century. Bertino said his first client was Jim Koch at Boston Beer, to promote Koch’s new light beer at the time; MMB was often seen as punching above its weight, chasing after national clients, and winning over many of them, most notably Subway.

As the industry consolidated, Connelly Partners emerged as the biggest independent agency in the city, with additional services such as media buying and data analytics that MMB did not offer; Bertino said he’s happy to finally have those tools at his disposal. (Connelly also expanded to Vancouver and Dublin.) They see their firm’s independence as giving them an edge, as they don’t have to report profits up to an out-of-town holding company.

Connelly employs about 175 people today, including 100 in Boston. That number includes 20 people who came over from MMB, such as David Register, now Executive Creative Director at Connelly. Both firms had layoffs in the past year as the overall industry retrenched in part due to uncertainty around trade and tariffs.

Now, Connelly and Bertino are talking about growing again, building off recent wins such as an expansion of their relationship with Yale New Haven Health.

“We just felt like now is the time to get it all under one roof,” Bertino said. “That seems to be what clients want today.”

Read more here.

Enda Gallen, Senior UX/UI Designer

Turn Compliance into Competitive Edge

Digital accessibility is not just a legal requirement – it’s a powerful opportunity. With regulations like the European Accessibility Act (EAA) now in effect across the EU and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) already firmly established in the US, businesses have a clear mandate to create accessible digital experiences. But beyond compliance, embracing accessibility means reaching broader audiences, improving user experience, and strengthening brand trust. At Connelly Partners, we work with organizations to ensure full compliance and turn this regulatory obligation into a competitive advantage. Here’s six ways how:

Better Products

Accessible design isn’t a niche, but is part of fundamentally good design. By requiring straightforward layouts, clear navigation, and inclusive content, it naturally elevates your entire user experience (UX). Whether it’s captions on videos or keyboard‑friendly navigation, these improvements benefit everyone – leading to superior, more intuitive digital products.

A Broader Market

There are over 87 million EU citizens and more than 1 in 4 Americans living with some kind of disability – plus millions more elderly or temporarily impaired users – all of whom benefit greatly from accessible design. Compliance with accessibility standards unlocks this large audience and lets them use your products or services without friction or barriers.

Enhanced Brand Reputation

Accessibility sends a clear message: we care. With the EAA now live and further developments to the ADA on the horizon, consumers will increasingly see accessibility compliance as a marker of trustworthiness and professionalism. An accessible experience signals leadership, competence, and social responsibility.

Lower Legal Risk

In the EU, new products and major updates must comply immediately, while existing offerings have until 28 June 2030 to fully align with the EAA, and Member States are already penalising serious usability lapses. Penalties vary per member state: Italy allows fines up to 5 % turnover; Spain fines up to €600,000 for serious breaches; Germany imposes up to €100,000 per non‑compliant product, Ireland holds company officers personally liable if offences occur with their consent or from neglect and penalties include prison sentences. 

In the US, ADA liability extends beyond regulatory action. A booming number of lawsuits, often filed by so‑called “serial plaintiffs” and specialised law firms, target websites and digital services as “public accommodations.” These suits, often initiated by individuals and their attorneys seeking injunctive relief and legal fees, typically result in settlements ranging from $5,000 to $20,000, even for small businesses. However, cases against Target, MIT, Harvard, Netflix and others have cost from the hundreds of thousands to millions.

Ongoing compliance isn’t optional anymore, but essential.

Cost-Efficiency

Ensuring accessibility from the outset of the product lifecycle is far more cost‑effective than retrofitting or enduring enforcement under the EAA or ADA.

The cost of non-compliance can be severe, but achieving accessibility doesn’t have to be. Think of accessibility like insurance. You don’t wait for a problem before protecting yourself. Building accessibility in from the start not only shields your business from legal and financial risk, it’s also much more affordable than reacting after a complaint or lawsuit.

The actual cost depends on the size and complexity of your digital product, but thanks to improved tools and growing industry expertise, compliance is now more achievable than ever. When accessibility is treated as a core design principle, rather than an afterthought, new projects can avoid expensive retrofits entirely.

Early investment in your projects saves time, effort, and money.

Innovation Through Accessibility

Embracing accessibility often leads to breakthrough innovation. OXO’s Good Grips utensils, inspired by arthritis-friendly design, redefined kitchen tools for everyone through universal ergonomics. Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller transformed gaming by accommodating diverse physical abilities, setting a new standard in inclusive hardware. IKEA’s stylish BÄSTIS collection integrates accessible features without sacrificing design, proving function and form can coexist. Rare Beauty, founded by Selena Gomez, reimagined cosmetic packaging with easy-grip applicators and twist-off lids, supporting users with limited dexterity. 

These brands demonstrate that designing with accessibility in mind not only expands usability but also inspires better, more thoughtful products for everyone.

Why Choose Connelly Partners

As a specialist agency, Connelly Partners offers full-service accessibility support:

Comprehensive accessibility audits aligned with the EAA and ADA: EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.2 AA
Development of accessible digital experiences (digital products, websites, apps)
User testing with assistive tools and participants
Certified accessibility experts 
Full compliance documentation & monitoring

We know the accessibility landscape. We align not just to avoid penalties, but to amplify your brand.

Making Accessibility a Core Part of Your Business

Staying compliant with accessibility standards isn’t just about avoiding risk – it’s about doing what’s right for your users and your brand. From websites and digital services to products and contracts, both EU and U.S. regulations continue to evolve, and it’s important to stay ahead.

At Connelly Partners, we work with organizations to help them understand where they stand, where they need to be, and how to get there – thoughtfully and effectively. Whether you’re starting with an audit or developing a long-term strategy, we’re here to support you at every step.

If you’re interested in learning more about how accessibility can become a natural part of how your business grows and connects, let’s talk.

Gene Begin, Managing Director, CP Education

Colleges, universities, and education organizations have a world of opportunity leveraging their advocates and turning them into influencers.

Utilizing the loyalty loop of a consumer decision journey can be one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies in any organization, let alone education. Advocacy drives awareness and influence and while this can happen within a variety of channels, advocacy is most prominent within social media. Social sharing is the online adaptation of the most successful marketing strategy in the history of humankind – word of mouth. 

Just think about how often you gather recommendations from your family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances, whether online or in person. That advocacy absolutely shapes your decision-making. 

Educational organizations should be taking advantage of this with their built-in community of advocates – employees, current students, board members, alumni, and even admitted students. This network is full of individuals with influence in multiple industries and audience segments. 

But in today’s creator economy, advocacy marketing for many organizations is not enough. Individuals within our networks have seen influencer marketing become part of the norm with their social feeds and they now understand how to take advantage of and monetize that sphere of influence. Even my pre-teens understand there are ways to monetize social content as they have seen their older cousin be successful in doing so in her career. Do not hesitate to budget and pay for advocacy and content creation. It should be an essential part of your integrated marketing strategy.

And remember, while our advocate networks in education are large and primed to be tapped into for influence, size doesn’t always matter when it comes to an individual’s network. Some of the most effective spheres of influence can be smaller, yet very committed and engaged. Community engagement really can be about the quality and not the quantity when it comes to activating a network. 

Influencer marketing truly harnesses the power and the authenticity of the human voice to impact brand perception and brand engagement. But identifying your target audience and evaluating the influencer’s following as a match is crucial. 

I recently moderated an influencer marketing panel at the eduWeb Summit in Portland, Maine. Below is a copy of that panel’s presentation, and if you want a partner on your influencer efforts, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our Influencer Marketing team helps activate the right influencers for your organization to build strategies that foster trust and leverage the strength of the human connection.

Nick Maumus, Assistant Media Planner

Sustainability is a buzzword in every industry, and it will only become more prominent as the climate crisis continues to grow. But when “carbon emissions” is mentioned in conversation; we default to thinking about the energy sector, big oil companies, and that dreaded Honda Civic revving its engine every early morning. What we forget is the prevalent and material impact caused by the digital world, and more specifically, advertising and media.

Firstly, carbon emissions in digital advertising are very real and have a much more prevalent impact than most of us realize. For context; 1M impressions creates 1 metric ton of CO2e (One passenger on a round-trip flight from Boston to London), and Google serves about 30 billion on an average day! 

Scope 1, 2, and 3: Categorizing Carbon Emissions

In terms of how we identify and categorize these carbon emissions; there is the Scope framework, which is divided into three categories.

• Scope 1 includes direct emissions from the business such as buildings, facilities, and company vehicles. 
• Scope 2 is related to energy consumption primarily demanded from the power grid to fuel activities, included in but not limited to those covered in Scope 1. It also encompasses utilities and power sources produced by entities other than the one using the energy.
• Scope 3, which accounts for approximately 90% of carbon emissions, originates from a business’s supply chain.

When we think of this in the context of media, the supply chain is not necessarily raw materials or manufactured inputs as might be the case for a computer chip manufacturer. For brands and agencies, the supply chain is most evident in the programmatic marketplace, where each publisher has multiple bid requests for every ad slot, and buyers are bidding on it all.

Additionally, every transaction and exchange of data that occurs on the programmatic supply chain releases a variable amount of carbon emissions; the larger and less efficient the supply chain, the more carbon is emitted. Publishers often duplicate ad bids for the same slot on overlapping DSPs and direct partnerships, leading to unnecessary and wasted transactions.

Measuring Media Emissions

Media emission measurement partners, such as Scope3, have entered the space to analyze programmatic publishers and raise awareness of their environmental impact. They provide a comparative ranking of the publisher’s total carbon footprint, their programmatic supply chain, and how their footprint breaks out among ad selection; media distribution; and creative delivery. 

Another valuable resource is a study conducted by Fifty-Five titled The Carbon Footprint of Media Campaigns. This public study examines the carbon emissions generated by a one-month mock omnichannel media campaign. The fascinating part of this study is how they were able to analyze the emissions from the four digital channels they chose to include. In their findings, they discovered that 323 Tons of CO2e were released over the course of one-month. However, if advertisers take sustainable digital advertising best practices into account, they can bring that total down on average 32% to 218T. 

Sustainability and Advertising: A Win-Win Partnership

Every impact, whether large or small, makes a difference in the climate issue. It is important that we spread awareness and resources to educate ourselves, and our industry, on the ways we can each drive change. In the context of programmatic supply chains, MFA (Made for Advertising) sites and ad-cluttered platforms are much less environmentally friendly—and on top of that, advertisers typically avoid these sites anyway. 

So, an incentive makes itself clear; a more efficient campaign is a cleaner campaign, and a cleaner campaign is a more effective campaign. All in all, understanding areas of improvement while maintaining the integrity of our campaigns can lead to bottom line improvements and notable environmental impacts. Next time you are in planning or see an innovative media placement, I invite you to explore the associated carbon journey and how you might be able to include sustainable digital advertising practices into your value chain. 

To celebrate its brand refresh, we partnered with Flair Airlines, transforming a vacant Gastown space into Flair/FWD, an immersive photography exhibition that brought the art and emotion of air travel to ground level. The two-week installation featured the work of National Geographic Explorer and photographer Mackenzie Calle. 

Through her lens, the exhibit explored both the wonder of flight and the behind-the-scenes choreography of aviation, reflecting how Flair is charting a new course and disrupting the air travel space with their mission to provide affordable air travel that connects Canadians to the people and experiences they love. 

Highlights included:

• Mackenzie Calle’s imagery offered a striking perspective on the art of air travel – capturing both the beauty of the journey and the behind-the-scenes moments that take passengers from departure to destination.
• A mix of photography reproduction, and print techniques, along with layered textures, lighting, and large-scale prints gave the space a larger-than-life experience
• A private kickoff event welcomed stakeholders, partners, and employees for an experience designed to toast the airline’s new trajectory. 
• A public opening on April 12–13 invited Vancouverites to explore the installation before it hits the road, with stops planned in other Canadian cities where Flair has major hubs.

The activation was a fresh take on airline marketing and a signal that Flair isn’t just refreshing its look, but making a deeper shift in how the airline connects with its community.

“Flair FWD was designed to signal a new era for Flair—one defined by confidence, clarity, and momentum,” said Patrick Smith, Creative Director at Flair Airlines. “Using award-winning photographer Mackenzie Calle’s distinct and beautiful imagery, we captured the essence of a brand on the rise. This was a Flair-led creative vision, brought to life with the support of Connelly Partners and Wildfire Events, who helped execute and implement the initiative with precision and energy.”

Nadine Cole, Co-Managing Director, Connelly Partners West also commented on the project, sharing that “the most fulfilling work happens when clients are clear on their mission and brave enough to break the mold. That’s what we’ve found with Flair. We believe in what they’re building, and we’re proud to travel alongside them as partners on what we know is an important journey.”

Grace Alimo, Paid Social Media Specialist

The world of social media is always changing. It is reshaping how we connect, how we share information, and how businesses engage with their audiences. These platforms are innovating faster than ever, driven by new ways users behave, technological advancements, and ever-intensifying competition for user attention (or “advertiser attention” depending on your angle). Keeping up with these endless platform changes isn’t just important; it’s absolutely vital to make sure your social media strategy remains modern, highly adaptable, and high-performing.

Here is how the recent updates on Meta, Reddit, and Snapchat will shake up how you advertise:

Meta Expands Ad Placements with Threads

Meta has officially launched Threads as a new ad placement for all global advertisers, released just three months after initial testing phases. This development enables advertisers to leverage Meta’s ecosystem more effectively, allowing them to seamlessly extend existing campaign creatives and target users directly in their Threads feeds. The strategic value here is multifaceted: it presents a prime opportunity to capture an audience that might be more active on Threads compared to other Meta properties, and potentially achieve more favorable CPMs as this new inventory matures and competition for placements develops. 

While the integration is simple with a new placement section in Ads Manager, optimizing performance on Threads requires a new approach. Threads has a large and engaged user base of over 130 million monthly users, primarily consisting of young adults between 18 and 34, with a notable skew towards male users. This audience offers strong cross-platform potential, with a significant portion also being active on Facebook (70%) and Instagram (51%). Creative content must be adapted to authentically resonate within Threads’ predominantly text-based and conversation-focused environment. 

Advertisers are observing that initial ad performance on Threads often aligns with upper-funnel objectives, such as reach and engagement. Advertisers can utilize Meta’s Advantage+ platform for automated optimization, with Threads now being a default inclusion for new campaigns. Advertisers who may be worried about Brand Safety and maintaining a manual approach may want to add this to their list of things to check on before launching new campaigns. 

Reddit Rolls Out Smarter Optimization Tools

Reddit, a platform often recognized for its unique, community-driven audience and high user engagement, is enhancing its Ad Manager with the introduction of new automated optimization insights and an “Optimization Score.” These in-stream recommendations are designed to empower advertisers to maximize their ad spend and improve campaign performance. The system leverages systematic analysis of Reddit’s ad response data and content interactions, providing guidance directly within the advertiser’s dashboard. 

A core component of this update is the “Optimization Score,” which assesses an account’s adherence to Reddit’s best practices. For accounts scoring below an 80-point threshold, the platform will proactively highlight specific areas for improvement, offering tailored tips to refine ad setups. This initiative not only aims to streamline the optimization process but also helps advertisers more effectively engage Reddit’s product-savvy audience, capitalizing on the platform’s growing role in user purchase decisions and recommendations.

Snapchat Bolsters Advertising with AI-Powered Updates

Snapchat is making changes in Artificial Intelligence to significantly improve its advertising capabilities. Key introductions include advanced AI-powered budgeting and bidding options that are designed to automate campaign optimization and enhance efficiency. These tools empower advertisers to set specific target costs-per-action, with Snap’s intelligent system then dynamically allocating spend to the top-performing ad sets within a campaign. This shift towards AI-driven optimization promises to streamline campaign management, reduce manual intervention, and improve overall performance outcomes using Snap’s deep understanding of user behavior and ad response. 

Snapchat’s popular “Sponsored Snaps” are receiving important updates as well, including new call-to-action options, a transition to auction-based delivery to open up more direct engagement, and even collaborations with creator handles. This focus on AI integration underscores Snapchat’s commitment to providing advertisers with smarter, effective, and scalable solutions.

Collectively, these updates underscore a strong industry trend toward more integrated, AI-automated, and data-driven advertising solutions. Adapting your social media strategies to proactively leverage these new placements, optimization tools, and AI-powered capabilities will be essential for unlocking new performance opportunities and maintaining a competitive edge in the dynamically evolving social media landscape.

Gene Begin, Managing Director, CP Education

Three days with colleagues and industry peers at a higher education marketing conference always does two things: confirms challenges are similar no matter the institution and motivates and invigorates marketers to meet those challenges head on. This year’s eduWeb in Portland, Maine was no different. 

AI tips aside (I mean what conference doesn’t cover AI in 2025), three themes I gleaned from the keynotes and session discussions I attended were that institutions needed to prioritize brand clarity, incorporate the strategic use of influencer marketing (insert obvious bias here), and make smart investments in paid media.

Achieving Brand Clarity

Two keynotes focused on brand: “How Brand Clarity Affects Enrollment” with ADV Market Research & Consulting and Bates College and “Does Your Brand Even Matter?” by Ethan Braden, CMCO at Texas A&M.  Both highlighted how understanding your institution’s brand narrative is paramount for reputation, reach and enrollment success. ADV’s research survey of 3500 prospective students exhibited how a brand story is essentially the compelling reason your institution exists and how important it is for a prospective student to see themselves as part of it.

A new Gallup poll shows that confidence in U.S. higher education is actually on the rise, with much thanks deservedly being given upon higher ed marketers. While Braden acknowledged that differentiation in the sector can be challenging due to similar principles, a collaborative industry, and inward-looking influence, colleges and universities have increasingly continued to market the value of higher education in recent years. 

Though industry brand-building has been instrumental, colleges and universities must focus on building their individual brands to see their own success. Ethan shared that to build a memorable brand, an institution should focus on five key principles:

Great brands are built on great insights.

Great brands stand for something and for someone.

Great brands offer outcomes, not features.

Great brands evoke feelings, not just facts.

Great brands tell great stories.

The goal is to enchant your audience, rousing and attracting ecstatic admiration and demand.

The Power of Paid Media Investment

In the research done by ADV Market Research & Consulting, it indicated a strong correlation between ad spend and brand clarity. The schools with the higher paid media investment were more likely to have a brand that resonated with prospective audiences. And as Texas A&M CMCO Ethan Braden reminded us, even the most popular brands in the world need to invest in  media. In 1986, in a speech to his board, Steve Jobs said, “Every brand needs investment and caring.” Nearly 40 years later, all of his remarks, including “It’s a very noisy world”, are extremely relatable to the present day.

In paid media, data can reveal clear pathways to success. That certainly holds true to your own campaigns and historical performance. But industry performance can also help provide some direction. Creative Communications Associates (CCA) led a great session with lessons learned from more than 50 higher ed media campaigns they led in recent years. 

Their top 10 insights from their campaigns were:

Meta was the platform driving most conversions; 98% of conversions were parents.

Sponsored content boosts awareness.

November had the highest number of conversions for undergrad programs; 25% more than the second highest month, December.
– Graduate campaigns’ highest month was January and March was the second highest month; January conversions were 21% more than March.

The best performing ads had graphical treatments and/or campus visuals; the sea of sameness of photos with smiling faces did not perform well.

Traditional media boosted search volume by 20-50%, depending on the channels used; the top performing channel was TV, followed by radio, outdoor and print.

Static images drove more conversions than carousel and video formats; videos drove the most engagement.

Meta’s top targeting tactic was Advantage+; it provided a 20-30% boost in overall performance, including conversions (30% higher) and costs (CPC was 20% less and CPA was 10% less).

For graduate campaigns, LinkedIn was the highest performing platform.
– Conversation ad leads are more likely to apply than not; send the conversation ads from a person rather than the institution.

TikTok drove most traffic to the website when included in the media mix; Meta was second and display was third.

Incentives work; people will give information if receiving something (infographic, guide, thought leadership content, etc).

Embracing Influencer Marketing

While two sessions spoke directly about influencer marketing (our Incorporating Influencer Marketing in Your Media Strategy panel and Maximizing Influencer Marketing by Maya Demishkevich), multiple speakers and attendees also spoke about its growing impact on their campuses and in prospective student recruitment.

In the college search process, prospective students are increasingly looking for authentic voices. In the research from ADV Market Research & Consulting, social media content not directly managed by the college, such as posts from current students, ambassadors, and influencers, were more highly desired than branded social media content. 

The emphasis in content should be on the student experience, tailored to specific student affinities. Be sure to use influencers of all kinds, ensuring you’re representing underrepresented groups, students from non-traditional backgrounds and programs that may not have the strongest marketing budget. And think of activating staff, faculty and external audiences such as college counselors to showcase different perspectives and relate to families and guardians who may be exploring the institution.

We all can have anxious feelings around these types of big life changes and this is one of the biggest purchase decisions for any family. Authenticity can be more important than ever to limit that anxiety. And an insider perspective for those who don’t have access to visit firsthand can go a long way in making prospective audiences more comfortable throughout the college search process. As the ADV team shared, people connect with and respond to stories, much more than data points. By leveraging the authentic voices and stories of those who are experiencing or have experienced your institution firsthand, you can create powerful narratives that resonate deeply with future students.

Kim Mazejka, Senior Media Planner

As a runner and being New England born and raised, I live my life quickly. “No one” knows how to walk on the sidewalk, I measure my life in how many miles I can squeeze into an hour, and groan at traffic on the Pike. So when the chance came to work out of our Dublin office, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to challenge myself with a change of pace by way of immersion.

After acclimating to walking on the left side of the sidewalk, I slowly found myself winding down to the European pace. Instead of finding the fastest method of transportation to work, I opted to walk for 45 minutes every morning, taking in the sights and reminding myself it wasn’t a sidewalk race, just a commute. Instead of rushing through lunch in front of my computer, I joined my Dublin colleagues at the kitchen table to unplug (as much as I could). And my running benefited the most. I paused my training plan and ran for as long as I wanted, as fast or slow as I wanted, in order to maximize my time in each of the countries I visited. In Dublin, I took a different route every time I visited the beautiful Phoenix Park, allowing myself to get lost until I found some deer or a romantic meadow to jog through. When visiting Copenhagen, I picked a spot on the map that I thought looked interesting and far enough to meet the amount of miles I felt like running that day. It ended up being the most beautiful place I’ve ever run in my life; straight out of a fairytale. I took my first solo trip to Stockholm, and after learning a huge lesson in being able to pivot when plans changed (a weakness of mine), I took a canal tour and spotted an island filled with trail runners that I made sure to experience on my own two feet the next morning. 

All of these experiences not only made me a more confident traveler, but also helped me have a greater understanding of the cultures I was visiting, which was the greatest gift of all. I can’t thank CP enough for this opportunity, and am so grateful to my Dublin friends for their warm hospitality.