Campaign Overview
The United States Army and the Ad Council wanted to enhance its “Boost” campaign, an ongoing high school dropout prevention initiative which launched in 2000. One student drops out of high school every nine seconds in the US and the number of 9th and 10th grade dropouts has tripled over the last 30 years (Lehr, Johnson, Bremer, Cosio and Thompson, 2004).
Campaign Objective
In response to these national dropout statistics, the U.S. Army and the Ad Council have launched a high school dropout prevention campaign to communicate the importance of staying in school and obtaining a high school diploma. The campaign leverages the immediacy and popularity of mobile with a younger demographic. With mobile outreach, Boost delivers high school students mobile call reminders to stay in school and encourages them to graduate.
Marketing Tactics
The Army and the Ad Council created a series of public service announcements (PSAs) to motivate students to stay in school with mobile “wake-up” calls. The PSAs were produced in English and Spanish. The mobile campaign provides free ringtones and “wake-up” call messages recorded by professional athletes and celebrities.
NBA all-star forward, Amaré Stoudemire, from the Phoenix Suns volunteered with “Boost” to help enhance its reach with three mobile “wake-up” calls available for download. The “Boost” campaign includes ad placements across television, radio, billboard, Internet and mobile to support and encourage at-risk teens of dropping out and stay in school.
Conclusion
Approximately 7,000 high school students drop out every school day, which translates to one in three students nationwide, according to a report by the America’s Promise Alliance. Parents, guardians and friends can send “wake-up” calls to high school students by visiting http://www.boostup.org. The site allows visitors to preview a variety of “wake-up” call messages. “Boost” leverages the popularity of mobile with teens, reaches out to at-risk high school students and encourages them to stay in school with mobile call reminders.
For more information, please visit www.boostup.org.