Engaged Purdue community with clear, compelling messaging

Students in a class

Strategic marketing and communication were essential to fostering a campus- and community-wide culture of taking care of ourselves, others and the Boilermaker community. Key was striking a balance between the gravity of the public health crisis and persistent messaging that encouraged sustained engagement across various audiences.

Central in this effort was the cross-functional Protect Purdue Communications Working Group, with 15+ members representing central campus units. This team has met every weekday at 8 a.m. since May 21, 2020, to coordinate efforts to communicate Protect Purdue guidelines while leveraging “The Next Giant Leap” brand platform to educate, inspire and unite the Purdue community — students, faculty and staff — around the Protect Purdue Pledge, grounding all messaging in its brand essence: Persistent. Innovation. Together. The messaging showcased how everyone came together, bringing their best and creating ways to persistently shift the mindsets and behaviors to ensure a safer campus.

This team also led the efforts to respond efficiently and helpfully to the questions and concerns of Purdue constituents — students, parents and families, faculty and staff, and future Boilermakers and their families.

  • The largely volunteer COVID-19 Information Center was established in March 2020 and has since fielded 57,000+ phone calls.
  • The Protect Purdue Weekly Briefing and the Protect Purdue Student Digest keep students, faculty and staff up to date on COVID-19 news and information from Purdue.
  • To answer questions and provide the latest information, the University held 80+ virtual town halls for faculty, staff and graduate students and 60+ virtual town halls for students and their families.

JAN. 24, 2020

FIRST COVID-19 COMMUNICATION

2,188,890+

WEB SESSIONS SINCE WEBSITE LAUNCH

832,261

UNIQUE VISITORS SINCE WEBSITE LAUNCH

75+ MESSAGES

FROM UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP TO CAMPUS COMMUNITY

32.8 MILLION

IMPRESSIONS GENERATED BY #PROTECTPURDUE POSTS

Purdue has maintained a central website since March 2020 to inform, educate and solicit feedback on the University’s response to COVID-19.

Purdue produced 1,515 posts using the hashtag #protectpurdue during the 2020-21 academic year.

  • Purdue posts generated 32.8 million impressions and over 580,000 “applause” (likes/comments/shares).
  • Over 550 Protect Purdue video posts generated 2.6 million views.
  • Purdue Marketing produced 90 videos supporting Protect Purdue.

“The entire Protect Purdue team is thrilled with the efforts being made by students, faculty and staff to not only get vaccinated, but also to continue to follow the Protect Purdue Pledge. Like so many of our campus community, we crave a return to a greater state of normalcy with summer and fall events, visitors, protocols and more.”

— ERIC BARKER
Dean, College of Pharmacy

Engaging Greater Lafayette

  • Purdue partnered with West Lafayette, Lafayette and Tippecanoe County in creating a healthy and safe environment for campus and its neighbors, and in crafting the Protect Greater Lafayette partner and individual pledges, modeled after the Protect Purdue Pledge.
  • Since more than 60% of Purdue students live off campus, Purdue worked with landlords to support students living off campus in adhering to the tenets of the Protect Purdue Pledge.
  • As home to one of the nation’s largest fraternity, sorority and cooperative communities — with roughly 20% of undergraduates belonging to one of these organizations — Purdue has worked with students and, where possible, advisory committees and national organizations to promote safe practices in these congregate living facilities.

150+ BUSINESSES AND 170+ INDIVIDUALS HAVE ADOPTED THE GREATER LAFAYETTE PLEDGE, JOINING PURDUE’S COMMITMENT TO HELP STOP THE SPREAD OF COVID-19.

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