Engaging a Teen Audience

One of the challenges I face at Saint Mary's is engaging a wide variety of teenage age groups. We start our communications to Sophomores in high school and follow up all the way through their Senior year. This piece was born of a conversation I had with our Director of Marketing. The data showed that Sophomores in high school are very practical. They are thinking about their future in terms of actual jobs and envision themselves in these positions vs. theory and ideas. Saint Mary's offers outstanding research and internship placement. We know that if we can get Sophomores looking at Saint Mary's, they will see the benefits of attending our university. As a Designer, I had to think like a Sophomore! Luckily, I have a Sophomore daughter and as I talked to her, it became obvious a standard direct mail piece was not going to get her attention. When I later described the idea of this piece, she said that it would get her to open it up. I won't always have the right age child at home, but I always try to bring myself into the mind of who is looking at my work.