Gen-X, Millennial Media Opps: Strayer University taps CMO amid TV spend increases (Score 52)
Strayer University (SU) hired Meghan Rodgers as CMO in June 2021. Rodgers comes from Jack Welch Management
Institute, where she held the same role. Keep an eye on this university as this hire will affect its marketing strategy and could lead to agency reviews.
**We have been unable to verify Rodgers' email at the time of publication, but will update Winmo as soon as we receive confirmation**
According to Pathmatics, SU earned 367.5m impressions YTD through Facebook ads (35%), desktop video ads (30%), Instagram ads (27%) and desktop display ads (8%). It placed the majority (97%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as facebook.com, youtube.com, instagram.com, yahoo.com and finance.yahoo.com. It placed the remainder (3%) indirectly through Google AdX+AdSense and AdThrive onto sites such as yahoo.com, zillow.com, ndnation.com, suntimes.com and inesting.com. It spent around $3.2m on digital display ads YTD, a 35% decrease from $4.9m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend jumped 63% from $6.7m in 2019 to $10.9m in 2020.
Magellan reports SU placed about 50 podcast ads over the last year.
Per iSpot, SU spent around $1.7m on national TV ads YTD, a massive increase from $151.6k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend increased 12% from $389.8k in 2019 to $437.6k in 2020. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "Entertainment Tonight," "Wheel of Fortune," "Dr. Phil," "Extra" and "Wipeout."
Sellers-- SU seems to be targeting Gen-Xers and millennials with a female skew. It reaches these demographics through digital display and national TV ads. The university has been decreasing digital spend, while increasing TV spend, which indicates it may be targeting Gen-Xers more aggressively, It also invests in local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. Sellers should contact SU to offer ad space.
Agency & martech readers-- I believe SU works with MediaCom on media buying/planning and EP+Co on creative. New CMOs commonly conduct agency reviews, so start reaching out soon in order to be top-of-mind. Those that have experience in education may have an advantage.
