SquaredPegBrad J Ward’s Thoughts on Higher Education Recruitment

At the Stamats conference there was quite a bit of talk about ‘free advertising’, and thinking outside the box to get your name out. I heard a great example today on my way to work.

I was listening to Jim Denny & Friends on WFMS, and Deborah was talking about some christmas stockings she dropped off at a business to have embroidered…. in 2005. The store was kind enough to call and remind her, 2 years later, that she needed to pick them up, so that was the whole punchline of the story. She had forgotten them for 2 years. However, I don’t remember them mentioning the store’s name, and that’s not the ‘free advertising’ that caught my attention.

What got me was 5 minutes or so later. They took a caller. It was Bill, from Osterman Jewelers. And he says: “Hey, this is Bill from Osterman Jewelers. Tell Deborah that I have a wedding band she dropped off for resizing about 20 years ago if she wants to come pick it up.” And everyone laughs hysterically. Sure, he didn’t have the band. But it was funny. And it got my attention. And then I started thinking that the people at Osterman must be pretty fun people and would be easy to deal with. After I was done thinking about all of that, I realized they had cut to commercial, and a Shane Co. commercial was wrapping up (a heavily advertised jeweler in town).

How much did Osterman pay? Not a penny. What do you think Shane Co. paid for a 30 second spot at 8:15am on the CMA Large Market Broadcast Personality of the Year award winning show? I’d say a couple diamond earrings or so.

Obviously you couldn’t call in and do this daily, but try to think outside of the box and grab on to opportunities like this when they arise for your school.