While catching up on their favorite televison shows on Hulu, students may be surprised to see familiar faces during commercial breaks.
Last Monday, Ball State aired the newest "Education Redefined" television commercials, a $600,000 campaign promoting the university through student success stories.
Airing in the Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and South Bend markets, the campaign consists of four, 15-second spots, each highlighting the story of one recent Ball State graduate.
Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for marketing and communications, said the new campaign is designed to tell Ball State's story through student faces.
"Our approach is to use stories to convey the powerful learning experiences that Ball State provides," Proudfoot said. "These are four student stories that exemplify a unique learning experience and demonstrate how powerful our program has been in enriching their lives and education."
One student featured in these commercials is Alex Kartman, who graduated this past May with a B.A. in telecommunications and is a current digital storytelling graduate student. As a graduate assistant, producer, director and technical director at Ball State Sports Link, Kartman has had his work air on Comcast and Fox College Sports.
"I think this commercial campaign is great," Kartman said. "Not only does it highlight my story, but in 15 seconds, viewers can also get an good understanding of Sports Link."
Since the launch of the campaign just last week, Kartman has received positive feedback.
"I've had nothing but positive reactions so far," he said. "My parents are so proud, they're pretty much speechless. ... I've been getting so many Facebook messages and texts and tweets from my friends saying ‘Oh, I saw you on TV! It was awesome!'"
Kartman's producing and directing experience benefitted him while filming the commercial.
"I didn't see it a stressful because I was able to look at it from a producer's perspective," Kartman said. "I knew how they wanted me to act and how to speak in sound bites. I had a lot of fun with it, it was a great chance to be in front of the lens instead of behind it."
Running from now until Thanksgiving and early February through April of 2012, the commercials cost nearly $100,000 in production and $500,000 to be aired. Proudfoot said the campaign is funded by undesignated donations and investments rather than student tuition or taxes.
Since the 15-second time limit leaves little room to tell each students full story, viewers are encouraged to visit the Ball State website, where they can find more in-depth two-minute commercials featuring the same students in a feature called "The Chronicles."
Although similar to a previous commercial campaign used two years ago, the new campaign differentiates itself by using student faces instead of featuring President Jo Ann Gora.
"Putting student faces on this campaign has made it compelling and personable," Proudfoot said. "These are stories that students want to tell about themselves and parents, alumni and prospective students want to hear."
Other recent graduates featured in the new commercial campaign:
Brody Bernheisel, 2010, telecommunications. After graduation, Bernheisel interned at Sesame Workshop in New York City, leading him to a job as a digital media production assistant.
Ben Clark, 2011, musical theatre. Clark wrote the music and lyrics for the musical adaptation of the fictional history book "The Circus in Winter," written by Cathy Day, assistant professor of English.
Abby Shemoel, 2011, landscape architecture. Shemoel is working to find solutions to environmental and social problems, leading her to study sustainability issues in Europe, Argentina, Costa Rica and Brazil.
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