Duquesne's Transform the Way You See the World Commercial

We've all seen it...it's the commercial that keeps popping up on the local television networks and can be seen at Palumbo Center before basketball games.

The creative strategy of this ad is to target high school students who are considering a college education and their parents who may influence whether or not they choose to continue with a higher degree. Competitors of Duquesne include the local Pittsburgh universities and small, catholic universities throughout the United States. Duquesne's brand position is that an education from here will change your perspective on the world, guide your future life and all while the Holy Spirit is by your side. Its unique selling proposition is that an education here will be life changing.

The theme of the ad is positive education with endless values. The selling idea is that an education from Duquesne University will help to guide you in your future endeavors. The commercial is constructed to show the progress of a day at Duquesne. Starting with darkness, the ad quickly lights up and reveals the center city location that Duquesne has. In the script, key words like "change," "transform" and "compassion" cue for a video speed up or time lapse shot to help the ad get through the entire day. This "speed" is a way of quickly showing the change that will occur from Duquesne and no other university. On the contrary, the end "spirit guides you every step of the way" is a slow motion focusing on a group of people laughing and happy to emphasize that this is possible. The ending shot of the flag blowing in the wind is symbolic of the endless paths that will arise after studying at the University. Additionally, showing students interacting with each other, studying and working with professors and priests shows that everyone is here to help the prospective student on the journey of a college education.

The script is also very intriguing. Starting from change and building to values, the Holy Spirit and Duquesne are with you all of the way. In summation, the script reads: something will change within you at the University, and with these changes you will have a new perspective of the world. It says that the education will be one of the hardest and biggest things you will accomplish, where lessons become values that pave the path for the life you lead and the Holy Spirit will guide you through it.

One difference with the YouTube commercial versus the TV ad is in the upper right hand corner, there is the "D" logo. If you hover over it, a menu comes up to allow for the option to subscribe to the Duquesne University YouTube channel. I did not notice this until I watched the ad several times, so it could be a technique to really capture those prospective students who are on the fence with a decision. They will likely have viewed the ad several times. When they click on the "D" they can see videos about all of the different colleges on campus, events and faces of the faculty. This could potentially convince them to study at Duquesne.

Where the ad fails is that when you type "Duquesne University" into Google, it is listed farther down on the first page. Potential students who are looking for college may not browse past the crease to follow all of the Duquesne links. There probably isn't much the University can do to have that moved until the video page and the YouTube page get more views.