The Situation:
West Virginia University Parkersburg (WVUP) struggled with an outdated website for years and it became unmanageable. The website lacked a Content Management System (CMS), which contributed to the stale and outdated information. The institution could not deal with the problem directly.
The Challenge:
Replacing the entire installation with a modern database driven solution on a solid and reliable hosting platform.
The Solution:
August 16, 2013, West Virginia University Parkersburg (WVUP) launched their new website produced by Image Associates. Built on WordPress, the site represented a vast improvement over what they had before.
New River was an institution without an identity. Created from four freestanding colleges located in four different cities, New River faced an uphill battle to establish a brand identity with a limited marketing budget. The college had no name recognition in its service area and the local communities that had previously been home to the four individual colleges that make up New River resisted consolidation. Enrollment was stagnant and morale was low.
Develop brand awareness across four distinct markets, increase enrollment, and create a unified brand culture across all four campuses.
Image Associates immediately went to work to develop a brand and create a spring enrollment campaign.
Image Associates identified New River’s target audience and value proposition, created a branding strategy, logo and other collateral materials and an integrated marketing plan and enrollment campaign. Working in the school’s four markets and using three TV stations, a half-dozen radio stations, regional and local newspapers, the school’s Web site and many free media opportunities, Image Associates circulated the broadcast, print and online media it had created for the Spring “Push.”
The campaign generated hundreds of calls and introduced the school’s brand to a diverse and geographically segmented population. New River’s enrollment rose almost 33% in just a few short weeks and the campaign was pronounced a definitive success.
The Governor of West Virginia put forth a mandate that all West Virginians should be able to compare health care costs across all health care providers in the state.
The West Virginia Health Care Authority pulled together a team of experts in database development and Web design, which included Image Associates, to produce the CompareCareWV Web site, where West Virginians could search through a massive database of medical procedures cross-referenced against the hospitals and other providers who performed them. The users could search by procedure or by distance from their location.
CompareCareWV represented a massive collaboration between Image Associates, the IT Department of the West Virginia Health Care Authority and a third party database administration firm tasked with bringing vast amounts of information in to play. The site was built on a .Net framework and relies heavily on CSS for the look and feel. Image Associates served, in part, as a bridge between the highly technical minds of IT and the less technically inclined West Virginia Health Care Authority administrators to translate needs and wants between those two disparate worlds. The site’s front end, including the user interface, and the graphical look and feel were coded by Image Associates. The server code for pulling the information from the back end database into usable tables of data for users on the front end was also provided by Image Associates.
The CompareCareWV Web site has received positive notices and press and continues to provide empowerment to the people of West Virginia by way of increased knowledge of health care costs.
In 2002, the West Virginia Housing Development Fund expanded its home mortgage program. The new program was not restricted to first-time buyers and had no income restrictions. Prior to this program the WVHDF guaranteed loans to first time buyers only and income restrictions and other factors limited eligibility strictly to low-income clients.
The WVHDF found themselves challenged to serve a much broader demographic than ever before; thus a new advertising program targeting a mid to high income audience was needed. Since the program was new and represented an unprecedented opportunity for homebuyers, the task of responding to the great volumes of requests for information (generated by the advertising) in a timely and courteous manner was expected to overwhelm the internal response systems of the WVHDF.
Image Associates named the new program “Home Delivery” and produced television, radio and print ads designed to target homebuyers aged 18 – 54 with incomes above $60,000. This targeted approach and key visual and audio cues contained in the TV spots were intended to overcome existing perceptions that the WVHDF serves only low-income clients. IA developed a video information packet to answer the most commonly asked customer questions and secured a toll-free telephone number and the services of an Inbound Telemarketing firm to respond to the anticipated call volume. The methodology was seamless to the respondent and ensured timely and courteous call response with no busy signals or hold time.
Over the initial 8-week advertising effort, total requests for information reached 337 per week. Requests continued for 11 weeks after advertising had ceased — averaging 15 requests per week, then response rates dropped to pre-campaign levels of 4 to 5 requests per week. At the suggestion of the WVHDF, Image Associates met with housing fund representatives in Kentucky and Virginia who agreed to form a cooperative advertising group. The first “multistate” campaign worked so well, all three states agreed to participate in a second cooperative TV spot air flight.
Creative services is one of our greatest strengths. We bring the full force of our firm to bear when a client needs a creative concept or solution to a marketing problem. (more…)
Strategic planning services are an integral part of our expertise. Strategy separates a mediocre campaign from an effective campaign. (more…)
Our in-house video production company allows us to go from concept to edit, all in 4K, without subcontracting. We can distribute your video on the web, on physical disc or deliver for broadcast. (more…)
Clients constantly remark on the effectiveness and ease of use that Image Associates brings to their Web sites. Our designs range from simple small business sites to enterprise class sites. (more…)
Over a million dollars in media buys each year has positioned Image Associates as a powerful player in our region’s media market. (more…)
We have the necessary manpower, corporate relationships, experience and vision to develop, initiate, execute and track an effective direct response effort. (more…)
Image Associates has worked with a number of research firms for both quantitative survey research and qualitative research services for a variety of clients. (more…)
Image Associates has the experience and relationships with media outlets across the Mid-Atlantic region to see a PR campaign through to its successful conclusion. (more…)
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