Pope Francis’ September visit to the United States prompted the #JesuitEducated marketing campaign, which includes a social media plan from Marquette’s Office of Marketing and Communication.
Overall, the campaign is led by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Chief marketing and communication officers from more than half of the 28 AJCU schools got together to capitalize on the Pope’s Jesuit background. They met at Loyola University Maryland in April to discuss their options.
The finished campaign includes a 50-by-70-foot banner of the Pope with the tagline “transformational leaders are Jesuit educated” at a Philadelphia train station, a Medium microsite, advertisements in The New York Times, a digital sign outside Madison Square Garden and the Jesuit Educated hashtag.
A smaller version of the Philadelphia banner hangs in the Alumni Memorial Union.
“Our goal was to tell the public that if you like the values of Pope Francis, then you’ll like the values of Jesuit schools,” said Deanna Howes, AJCU director of communications and Fordham University alumna.
OMC and Tim Cigelske, Marquette’s social media director, largely assisted with the online efforts by planning or executing posts on the microsite, Facebook, Twitter and Google.
“I’m grateful to Marquette for agreeing to design the social media efforts and campaign,” Howes said. “I’m very pleased with the results.”
The hashtag launched July 31, the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuit Society of Jesus. Between then and Oct. 15, it made 3.4 million impressions. It also spiked the AJCU’s Facebook likes from 1,300 on Sept. 1 to nearly 5,000 on Oct. 1 – a 284 percent increase.
Additionally, Howes said the Jesuit Educated Facebook ads and videos were shared over 12,000 times. Cigelske said he was blown away by the response.
“The spotlight is really meant to be on the community,“ he said in an email. “We’re supposed to be behind the scenes just helping facilitate the connections.”
The campaign has a steering committee with representatives from 10 Jesuit institutions, including Marquette. Howes said the campaign mainly targets four audiences: prospective students and their parents, the general public, members of Congress and Jesuit school students and alumni.
“We wanted to get people excited and interested,” Howes said. The idea, she explained, was for people to notice the campaign through an advertisement or on social media, go to the AJCU website, see names of the 28 colleges and universities and explore them further.
Cigelske said the campaign’s reach points to the broader power and influence of social media.
“I’ve always believed that social media is merely a reflection of what happens in the real world,” he said. “In this case, I think it revealed the pride in Jesuit education as well as the popularity of this pope.”
