The OSU Student Union Bookstore has 3 problems at the end of the year:
- Competition for textbook buybacks from 100 other places in & out of town, including sororities, charities, eBay, and other private and corporate bookstores.
- Professors wait until 2 weeks after the deadline to get next year’s book lists in, keeping students from selling back their books for a decent price.
- People see the SU Bookstore as an evil empire, campus program, even though they do more for students than any other place that would buy their books.
The Student Union Bookstore helps pay for a year’s worth of campus programs that everyone on campus benefits from: Finals Pancakes, Wi-Fi, Casino Night, Campus Life jobs and activities, Orange Peel, just to name a few. Our task was to communicate that message to the students, while still managing to sell a crapload of books. We used the O’Colly campus newspaper, Union-branded banners all over campus, posters, and e-mails. Michael did the banners & posters. I was assigned the newspaper campaign.
We ran four half page ads and three full page ads with a cyan spot color in the two weeks leading up to finals. The daily ads promoted specific books with high prices and high buyback quantities. Our goal was not just to list book prices as usual, but to communicate to students the many benefits that students and OSU get from the Student Union Bookstore that they don’t even know about.
This is my favorite ad (the MacBook Pro may or may not have played into that choice). Hit the jump to see the whole campaign. I’ll be adding it to my portfolio site this week when I get a chance.
