STUDENT HOUSING

2022 Campus Advantage
Cyber Monday Campaign

Every year, Catalyst collaborates with Campus Advantage on their portfolio-wide Cyber Monday campaign, geared at both interested prospects and current residents looking to renew their lease. For the 2022 campaign, Catalyst leveraged the resurgence of Y2K trends and the current popularity of digital nostalgia and other retro tech/fashion to center the campaign around the theme, “The Future Comes Full Circle.” In addition to playing on the idea of old trends becoming new again, this theme also pointed toward Campus Advantage’s commitment to investing in the future of their residents.

Once the theme was established, Catalyst began work on visuals and messaging. To blend the nostalgia of the ’90s with an appeal to today’s Gen Z audience, the campaign art featured various pop-ups, loading bars, browser windows, and buttons in a variety of bright and primary colors. Stock imagery of students was curated specifically to include these same vibrant tones while capturing both a retro and contemporary feel. Messaging featured key headlines and callouts, such as “BRB, having a full-circle moment,” “Do your future self a favor,” “What goes around comes back around,” and “Investing in your future self never goes out of style.” Because the campaign was short — running only from Black Friday to Cyber Monday — it was important to also create a sense of urgency with powerful calls to action (CTAs) and deadline reminders.  

In addition to a landing page for each community, Catalyst created custom animated story graphics, paid Facebook and Instagram ads, Google ads, emails, a video, and an editable flyer and poster to allow each community to promote the campaign and giveaways throughout Cyber Weekend. Residents and prospects were encouraged to sign before the end of the four-day stretch to take advantage of themed prizes, such as a retro-inspired iMac computer, a Marshall Bluetooth speaker, or Crosley record player (a nod to the “full circle” theme, as well).

RESULTS

Overall, the 2022 Cyber Monday campaign was a success, driving leads and traffic to all of the participating communities in the Campus Advantage portfolio. Specific highlights are as follows:

  • 141 renewals and 102 new leases were signed as a result of this campaign.

  • The campaign garnered a total of 4,598 sessions to the landing pages, with 3,705 of those sessions conducted by new users.

  • Catalyst sent a total of 48,611 emails with an open rate of 49%, exceeding the industry benchmark of 18.2%.

  • The campaign video posts to each participating community’s Google My Business page received a total of 62,582 impressions.

  • Custom QR codes added to the printed posters and flyers received a total of 180 scans.

  • The search engine marketing (SEM) portion of the campaign received 195,574 impressions and 1,920 clicks.

  • The social media marketing (SMM) campaign received 119,189 impressions and 1,770 clicks, resulting in a click-through rate of 1.5%.