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MCCC launches new ad campaign

MCCC is set to launch an “I got my start” advertising campaign. 
The ads will feature former students talking about how they got their start and what successes they have had since their time at the community college. 
“I’m so thrilled with how it looks and how it’s been received,” Marketing Director Joe Verkennes said.
He came up with the idea at home, and took it to a meeting of administrators in the middle of last year. 
“The idea started from wanting to feature our students and feature our alumni,” he said.
Initially Verkennes received 40-50 submissions of successful alumni, but he only needed a dozen. 
“I’ve got a stack now of 60-70,” he said. 
The campaign will rotate the seven ads and may add another four or five, topping out at 12, he said.
This is one of the few times that MCCC has had multimedia advertisements. In the past, advertisements were primarily print based and had more to do with branding the college. 
Verkennes said that he usually stayed away from visual advertisements because they are costly. 
He is keeping costs down by using as few outside resources as possible. Verkennes wrote the ad copy and the college graphic artist handled the design. 
The television advertisements were somewhat challenging for cost, but Verkennes had that figured out, too. 
“I’m using more freelance type folks,” he said. 
The TV ads will be different from other college advertisements because they will show the students in action. 
“It’s not going to be typical boring testimonials,” Verkennes said.  
Each student has a different story, Verkennes said. For example, Nicole Borowski is a female welder and Matt Foley is a police officer.
The television ads will be shown on Buckeye Cable, Charter, Comcast and WOW. 
Eventually, all of the video advertisements will go up on YouTube for everyone to see. 
“Another reason for doing a campaign like this is the social media aspect,” Verkennes said. 
The idea behind this is that friends and family of the alumni can share the ads with people from anywhere. 
“Obviously, I get really excited about it because it’s why we go into marketing,” Verkennes said. 
Asia Rapai is one of the students participating in the ad campaign. Rapai, 24, is the public relations coordinator for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
“You don’t have to have amazing resources to make it,” she said. 
She chose MCCC because she had a scholarship in theater, and it was close to home. 
Rapai said that she looks fondly on her time as a student at MCCC. She wrote for the Agora, was a writing fellow, and participated in theater.
“I loved the community college; it was a great foundation for me,” she said.  
Rapai said that her biggest inspirations were Mark Bergmooser, Dan Shaw and Joe Verkennes. 
She graduated from MCCC in 2010 with an Associate of Arts, and went on to Bowling Green State University with the skills she learned at MCCC. 
“I was able to jump right in,” she said. 
She became the editor for the Bowling Green student newspaper after her first year. 
In 2012, Rapai graduated from Bowling Green with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism.  
She has been with the DSO for a little over three months. She said she loves working in the arts, and in Detroit. She also said that it is her dream job, and that the employees of DSO are like a family.