Innovate Possible Executive Summary

Innovate Possible
Executive SummaryA semester of growth, learning, and innovation.
Boston University’s AdLab + AT&T
Where ideas take off.
+1 540 860 2441 | bostonuadlab@gmail.com | www.buadlab.com

Executive Summary 2014
[Table of
contents ]
01Introduction
Statement from management
What is AdLab?
Our team
The situation
Advertising objectives
03
04
05
06
07
02Campaign Execution
Research
Creative strategy
Digital strategy
Public relations
“Innovate Possible” event
Strategic partnerships
08
12
17
22
24
29
03Campaign Results
Post-campaign survey
Financial report
Campaign summary
30
33
33
04Appendix
Research Sources
Focus Group Questions
Financial Statement
Talent Catch Registrations
34
34
35
36
2

Hands-down, this has been the craziest
semester that I have ever experienced.
Internships, clients, classes, projects, papers
-- you name it, I was juggling it. Sleep
became a luxury. I ate when I remembered
to. Group meetings were the pinnacles of my
social life.
That being said, I am still amazed at how
much I’ve learned in such a short period of
time, and I am confident that I can speak
for my entire team when saying that they
experienced the same. We all grew this
semester; we grew academically, we grew
creatively, and we grew professionally. Words
cannot express how proud I am of my team
and what we were able to accomplish for our
client, AT&T -- especially given the bandwidth
of everyone involved.
This document will provide more insight into
our strategy and campaign, detailing the
tasks AT&T gave us, and how we achieved
positive results. I am so proud to be a part of
Adlab and am duly impressed by everyone
on my team. This competition has been a
great learning and growth experience for us
all, and I want to thank EdVentures and AT&T
for providing us with this opportunity.
Chris Hurlbert
(AdLab, Account Executive)
Boston, 5th of May 2014
[Executive
statement ]
3

Think. Rethink. Create. Repeat.
Bred to think in big ideas, these men and women
make up the country’s largest student-run
agency.
AdLab had humble beginnings. In 1975, four
Boston University students formed the agency
to serve a single client, with only a desk and
a broken typewriter at their disposal. The
founding four all wanted one thing: to create ad
campaigns for real clients.
Now, almost four decades later, this philosophy
still holds true. Over 100 ambitious students work
to achieve advertising excellence for dozens of
clients each semester, making up the country’s
largest full-service student-run agency.
Under the guiding wisdom of industry vets Tobe
Berkovitz and John Verret, we pump out cutting
edge work for local and national clients. And,
though we charge a nominal fee, it is passion--
not money--that drives us.
A passion to create agency-caliber work that
builds both clients’ businesses and our own
portfolios.
And, with ever new semester comes the next
set of big ideas, ready to incubate and develop.
Ready to sharpen the cutting edge of advertising.
This is AdLab, where ad men and women are
born.
[What is
AdLab? ]
4

The team at Boston University spent many days
(and nights) building a rock-solid strategy for our
client, AT&T. With only 9 members we had to be
nimble and were forced to work fast -- but we
wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
Through executing this campaign we each
gained tremendous insight into what working
for a real client is like, how to work as part of a
diverse team, and how to achieve advertising
objectives.
The AdLab team made the decision early on to
partner with Boston University’s PRlab this spring
in order to leverage their skills in public relations.
This partnership was critical to our campaign’s
success, as awareness of our event had to be
achieved with virtually no paid media.
Below is a list of our team and the role each of us
served for the duration of this campaign.
Chris Hurlbert Account Executive
Morgan Perry Account Supervisor
Liana Franklin Creative Supervisor
Blair Bailey Planner / Strategist
Briana Brochu Art Director
Jay Schwartz Copywriter
Danni McGovern Copywriter
Winnie Chen Public Relations
Leah Ellner Public Relations
[About
our team ]
5

AT&T came to us with a distinct problem.
They want to hire top talent from the Boston
market, but students currently view the
telecommunications company as storied and
too corporate. We were also asked to help
increase the Net Promoter Score (NPS) on Boston
University’s campus and make students aware of
AT&T’s 10% student discount.
Our team was responsible for identifying key
factors driving purchase consideration within our
target audience of young Millennials and work
to promote AT&T as an innovative employer,
especially within the STEM majors.
We know that younger Millennials (those aged
18-25) seek exciting careers in roles where they
feel valued and important. We also know that,
for these individuals, experiences provide better
channels of messaging than traditional media
vehicles.
Through secondary research we know that for
brands to matter to Millennials, being “average”
is no longer enough. Consumers must be
engaged at all touch points, the brand must
provide users with a sense of authenticity, and
the product must have a fundamental purpose or
reason for being that is relevant to the Millennial’s
everyday life.
Leveraging these insights became critical to the
success of our campaign.
[The
Situation]
6

[Advertising
objectives ]
Increase awareness on Boston University’s
campus of AT&T’s College Development
Programs.
Increase awareness on Boston
University’s campus of AT&T’s 10%
student discount.
Run a successful campus event to promote
AT&T’s core values.
Generate positive press coverage in local,
campus and community media (traditional and
non-traditional channels).
Increase the
number of
applicants to
AT&T’s College
Development
Programs.
Increase the
Net Promoter
Score for AT&T
by addressing
key issues and
misconceptions.
7

Background
AT&T is one of the largest technology companies
in the world, and continues to accelerate
innovation for their customers by hiring talented
employees and running the fastest, most reliable
network. AT&T would like to be promoted as
an employer of choice and attract the best
and brightest of current students and recent
graduates to AT&T’s college development
programs.
AT&T and EdVenture Partners would like our
team to work to educate students about AT&T’s
full time and internship college development
programs, particularly in the areas of business
sales, retail management, and technology, and
position AT&T as an employer of choice. The
Client would like our team to achieve this overall
goal by creating an innovate solution to capture
and deliver diverse and qualified candidates to
the College Recruiting team.
In addition, the Clients would like the team to
highlight and increase awareness of the student
discount offered by AT&T.
Research Objectives
Currently, Millennials have negative perceptions
of a sales position, both in retail and business.
Millennials are also unaware of the many
innovative training programs AT&T provides
in order to advance their careers. AT&T wants
to position themselves as a highly attractive
employer and raise awareness of their College
Development Programs in order to change the
perceptions of their target audience.
In order to accomplish this, we needed to:
[Research
and planning]
8

• Gain insight on the target audience’s (18-24
Millennial Market) opinions on career paths
and identify key drivers in Millennial ideal
employer selection considerations.
• Get feedback from the target audience about
their knowledge of AT&T as an employer and
AT&T’s College Development Programs.
• Gain insight on the relationship between
AT&T as a brand with the target audience.
Research Methodology
Qualitative Research
The Account Planner conducted three focus
groups:
• Two focus groups discussing ideal careers
were conducted on March 3, 2014 at 5 p.m.
and 6:30 p.m.
• One focus group discussing experiences
with and impressions of AT&T was conducted
on March 4, 2015 at 5 p.m.
• In total, the focus groups consisted of
21 participants (18 Boston University
undergraduate students, 3 Boston University
graduate students). Student participation is
broken down further in Appendix C.
• Participants were recruited through
Facebook and other social media platforms,
the BU job board, and in person. Each
participant was offered a $15 Starbucks gift
card as compensation.
Quantitative Research
The Account Planner conducted two surveys
in order to measure awareness and change in
opinions before and after the event.
The Account Planner conducted a pre-event
survey via Qualtrics.
• The survey was distributed to Boston
University students via Facebook, Reddit, and
e-mail and received 512 responses. Survey
respondents were given the chance to win a
$30 Starbucks gift card for their participation.
• The survey asked students about their
opinions on careers, their interaction
with brands over social media, and their
opinions of AT&T and awareness of the
College Development Programs and student
discount.
• The Account Planner conducted a post-event
survey via Qualtrics.
• The survey was distributed to Boston
University students via Facebook, Reddit,
e-mail, and University contacts and received
over 400 responses. Two survey respondents
were given the chance to win a $10
Starbucks gift card for their participation.
• The survey asked students about their
opinions on careers, their awareness of and
participation in Innovate Possible, and their
opinions of AT&T and awareness of the
College Development Programs and student
discount.
Key Findings
Our target audience feels unprepared for
working in the professional environment due
to a lack of experience with soft skills, yet they
understand the importance of having said skills.
• Secondary research about our target
audience reveals that 66% of recent college
graduates say that unpreparedness is a real
problem among their own cohort (Bentley
University).
• Additionally, 6 in 10 [recruiters] say they wish
students had developed more soft skills in
college (Bentley University).
• In our pre-event survey, we asked
participants how important certain soft
skills were, including being a team player,
having communication skills, flexibility, time
management, patience, and motivation.
Survey results showed that an average of
35% found all the skills very important and
an average of 55% found all the skills listed
extremely important.
Our target audience is apprehensive about the
internship and job application process.
• During our focus groups, participants
expressed concern that they often felt either
overqualified or under-qualified for jobs and
there was no in-between, making it difficult
to find an entrance point to their careers.
• Many students in our focus groups also
said that networking appears increasingly
important in launching a career, although
they often do not have a proper opportunity
for networking and feel they are at a
9

disadvantage.
• According to our pre-event survey results,
when asked whether or not the job
application process discourages students
from applying to jobs, 58% of participants
selected “sometimes” and 21% of
participants selected “most of the time.”
• Pre-event survey results also showed that
47% of participants identified disliking the
job application process to some extent.
Our target audience finds the idea of training
programs appealing.
• All of our focus group participants agreed
that a training program to introduce them
into their careers as well as keep up their
skills throughout their careers was appealing.
Although participants agreed that the theory
they learned in their courses was relevant,
they also said that skills learned on-the-job
were incredibly beneficial.
• According to our pre-event survey results,
63% of survey respondents said that learning
skills on-the-job and training programs were
equally important.
• Our pre-event survey results also showed
that 39% of survey participants were at least
“somewhat interested” in applying to one of
AT&T’s College Development Programs.
Our target audience is cause-driven and
environmentally concerned.
• According to secondary research about
our target audience, they are a generation
that “embraces business and government
and believes that such institutions can bring
about global change” (Barton, Fromm, &
Egan, 2012).
• Our secondary research also shows that
Millennials, more than non-Millennials, prefer
to actively engage in a cause campaign by
encouraging others to support it (30% versus
22%) or by participating in fundraising events
(27% versus 16%) (Barton, Fromm, & Egan,
2012).
• On our pre-event survey, when asked to
rate the importance on certain factors in a
career, 40% of respondents labeled “Social
Responsibility” as most important.
Our target audience had conflicting, yet overall
positive opinions of AT&T.
• During our focus group, our participants
reported both exemplary service – kind
employees, personalized customer service
– and substandard service – long lines, few
employees, lack of basic practices, lack of
service follow ups.
• Although the reports of customer service
were conflicting, overall participants had
a good impression of AT&T as a company.
They found AT&T professional, especially
when compared to its competitors. Overall,
our participants agreed that AT&T would
be an excellent company to work for, both
because of the brand image as well as the
reported benefits.
• The pre-event survey showed that 33% of
our participants would consider working for
AT&T.
Our target audience found price and rate plans
the most important driver when deciding on a
mobile service provider.
• The pre-event survey showed that 55% of
participants identified “Price/Rate Plan” as
the most important driver when choosing a
mobile service provider.
• Although our pre-event survey showed that
only 14% of participants were aware of the
student discount, the above insight shows
that our target audience, while not aware,
would be incredibly open to the idea of the
student discount.
Our target audience spends a significant time on
social media.
• Millennials are “digital natives” who have
grown up with technology and social media
and use these tools as a natural part of life
and work (Barton, Fromm, & Egan, 2012).
• Secondary research also shows that
Millennials prefer communicating with
brands and retailers via text or email rather
than in-store visits (O’Donnell, 2012).
Our target audience has an entrepreneurial
spirit.
• Our secondary research revealed that 48%
of Millennials say that owning their own
business is a top life goal (Berland, 2012).
10

Recommendations
Create an event that shows AT&T as a potential
employer to consider.
• Millennials will respond to an event that
highlights their entrepreneurial spirit as well
as gives them a chance to practice their soft
skills.
• At the same time, this event will show the
target audience how they can fit into and
contribute to AT&T as a future career. Though
this event, Millennials will see AT&T as a
cause-driven, innovative company and will
be able to place themselves in the mind of
Millennials as a potential employer.
• During the event, the College Development
Programs will be promoted in order to future
promote AT&T as a future potential employer
and appeal to our target audience’s desire to
move ahead in the workplace.
Highlight the student discount via social media.
• Millennials find price and rate plans to be
the biggest drivers when choosing a mobile
service provider, therefore, we know that
the target audience will respond well to the
student discount.
• In addition, many Millennials connect with
brands over social media, so using channels
such as Twitter and Facebook will be an
effective method for spreading awareness of
AT&T’s student discount.
Summary
AT&T would like to be promoted as an employer
of choice and attract the best and brightest of
current students and recent graduates to AT&T’s
college development programs. Currently,
Millennials have negative perceptions of a sales
position, both in retail and business. Millennials
are also unaware of the many innovative
training programs AT&T provides in order to
advance their careers. AT&T wants to position
themselves as a highly attractive employer and
raise awareness of their College Development
Programs in order to change the perceptions of
their target audience.
Overall our focus group participants had a good
impression of AT&T as a company. They found
AT&T professional, especially when compared to
its competitors. Overall, our participants agreed
that AT&T would be an excellent company to
work for, both because of the brand image as
well as the reported benefits.
In addition, all of our focus group participants
agreed that a training program to introduce them
into their careers as well as keep up their skills
throughout their careers was appealing. Once we
introduced the College Development Programs
to focus group participants, they were very
interested in learning more about the programs.
By creating an event that responds to the
entrepreneurial spirit of our target audience as
well as offering students the chance to network
and develop soft skills, AT&T will be able to
promote their College Development Programs
to a responsive audience. The event will prevail
the brilliant minds students could be among at
AT&T and will put the company in their mind as a
potential employer after graduation.
In addition, to promote their student discount,
AT&T should promote the discount via social
media platforms where their target audience of
interest will be most responsive.
11

The creative department was responsible for
creating an integrated campaign that could
be launched on multiple media platforms,
including print, Online, social media, experiential
marketing and mobile. The “Innovate Possible”
campaign targets students that think big. They’re
passionate about their careers and becoming
innovative minds in their industries of choice.
Versatile creative depending on the medium
made for a constantly changing but also
consistent voice throughout the campaign.
Product/Service
AT&T is one of the largest technology companies
in the world, and continues to accelerate
innovation for their customers by hiring talented
employees and running the fastest most reliable
network. AT&T would like to be promoted as
an employer of choice and attract the best
and brightest of current students and recent
graduates to AT&T’s college development
programs. They would also like to raise
awareness of the student discount.
Challenge
To establish AT&T as the employer of choice
and industry leader in the mind of the target
audience and encourage Boston-area students
to get involved. To achieve this, several goals
needed to be met:
• Raise awareness of AT&T’s full time and
internship College Development Programs
in business sales, retail management, and
technology.
• Dispel myths about sales and AT&T.
[Creative
strategy ]
12

• Develop an innovative solution to capture
diverse applicants to the College Recruiting
team.
• Raise awareness of available student
discounts.
Role of Communication
Communication with the target audience was
vital to our campaign’s success. We encouraged
audience engagement at every stage of our
campaign and through every communication
medium. By creating a dialogue (and thus
word of mouth buzz) through social media
and interactive ads that encouraged audience
participation via hashtags and Instagram
competitions, we extended reach of our
communication and awareness of our campaign.
Target Audience
Boston-area Millennial students, ages 18-25. They
are a group of entrepreneurial problem-solvers
and though many are unemployed, they are
the largest and most educated demographic in
American history. They value experiences over
possessions and consider socially-conscious
practices a business imperative. Because of this,
they aspire to work for companies that share their
socially-conscious, innovative drive.
Current Beliefs
College students view AT&T solely as a mobile
service provider. Boston-area students never
considered AT&T as an innovative company,
or an employer of choice, simply because they
were not blatantly exposed to that information.
Millennials have negative perceptions of a sales
position, both in retail and business.
Desired Beliefs
We want the best and brightest college students
to pair Boston and AT&T’s innovative spirit
together in their minds. Boston-area college
students will view AT&T as an innovator, an
employer of choice and a place where they can
develop and grow within their career path.
What Makes This Believable?
AT&T’s College Development programs feature
tracks in management, corporate, technology
and sales and provide trainees with challenging
work in order to advance them to their ideal
careers. AT&T also runs the AT&T Foundry and
Labs Research in order to develop innovative
technology to benefit their consumers and
improve the future.
What is the Desired Brand
Personality?
The AT&T brand is innovative, inspiring, and
passionate. The brand is caring both because of
its Research Labs and Foundry that work to make
technological advancements for consumers and
its dedication to customer service.
Campaign Theme & Message
Based on insights found during pre-campaign
research, our campaign revolved around
a personalized, aspirational approach. We
emphasized the power of the individual and
importance of working for a company that
embraces that power. Our strategy was that
AT&T provides meaningful and exciting work
opportunities for driven Millennials because of
its company values (socially conscious, always
innovative, constantly improving) and college
development programs.
Executional Considerations
The team must organize an event in order to
raise awareness and consideration of AT&T as
a potential employer. The event will feature a
competitive component in order to attract the
brightest and most innovative students and
reflect the innovative attitude of AT&T. During the
event, the team will promote AT&T as a potential
employer and the College Development
Programs, the AT&T Foundry and Research Labs,
and the AT&T Student Discount. The event will be
promoted using a mix of traditional advertising,
including posters, digital, including social media,
and experiential outdoor advertising.
13

We used the following media to engage our
target audience:
• Print ads
• Outdoor advertising
• Microsite
• Social Media
• Flyers
• Booths set up in high traffic areas
• Stickers
• E-mail newsletters
BU
Shuttle
Ad
14
Event
Challenge
Books

Sticker
BU Shuttle Ad
Flyer
15

APRIL 19TH
11:00 am - 3:00 pm
{ }
REGISTERTODAY
775CommonwealthAve,Boston,MA02215
innovatepossible.com
S A T U R D A Y
WICKEDSMAHT?
Tweet us a selfie of your lightbulb moment.
Tag @ATT_InnoBoston with #InnovatePossible
and be entered to win a Starbucks gift card.
RegisterforInnovatePossible
<<SELFIEHERE
Warren
Towers
Poster

Our digital strategy was created based on insight
gathered through our pre-campaign research.
We know that our target is active on social media,
so promoting messaging there was obvious. We
created a microsite to hold information about
Innovate Possible, our campus event. The site
also served as a landing page for us to promote
AT&T’s College Development Programs. We
leveraged various other digital platforms such as
HootSuite, ScoreMyPitch and MailChimp to help
manage our digital footprint.
Social Media Strategy
Our social interactions were focused on
innovation and technology news within Boston.
From our ATT_InnoBoston Twitter account,
we remained active in the conversation with
news outlets tweeting about technology or
related matters. We joined the the discussion to
generate awareness and publicize our event. We
retweeted relevant articles and actively searched
for keywords and/or hashtags to participate
in relevant ongoing conversations and to stay
relevant.
We created a number of infographics and other
vector-based art that was posted to social media
(see images on next page). These graphics had
creative messaging in order to raise awareness
about the various aspects of our campaign,
staying colloquial and relevant to our target
audience
Digital Strategy
Our microsite was designed to be minimal and
responsive so that our target would not be
confused when trying to access our content.
Screens are on the following pages.
[Digital
strategy]
17

Facebook Campaign
Over the course of 50 days:
1,299,015 impressions
18,867 viral impressions
232,196 daily reach
9,570 daily viral reach
112 total page likes
58 total likes on posts
28 total shares
On a daily basis, an
average of 4,738
unique users saw our
FB content.

Twitter Campaign
Our most popular Tweet was clicked 61 times:
French could be the official language of the future
according to @Forbes. Maybe it’s time to start
practicing? http://ow.ly/v1qpj
103 total followers
28 total retweets
53 total favorites

In order to generate awareness for our
campaign we had to rely on word of mouth
and earned media. To get the word out, our PR
team contacted professors and student groups
at various schools throughout Boston to tell
them what we were up to. Many professors got
back to us and were thrilled to hear about our
competition.
Over the course of only three weeks we were
able to gain media coverage from four total
outlets. The first media coverage we received was
from WTBU Radio, a Boston University student-
run radio station. We gave them a five-minute
interview during which we promoted our event
and AT&T’s mission. That interview played during
their Tuesday, April 15th show at 6:15pm.
The second media outlet to cover our AT&T
Innovate Possible Campus Challenge was
BostInno PRLab Blog. They allowed us to publish
our own blog via their channel to promote our
event. This went live on Friday April 18th, the
night before Innovate Possible. http://bostinno.
streetwise.co/channels/att-innovate-possible-
campus-challenge/
Our third coverage came from The Heights, the
Boston College newspaper. They covered post-
event happenings to report on our results. The
article was a feature about Innovate Possible
that came out on Wednesday April 23rd, the
week after the event. http://www.bcheights.com/
metro/at-t-brings-innovation-challenge-to-boston-
university-1.3163682#.U2a4BSh7F38
Our fourth and final media outlet coverage came
from the Boston University graduate student
[Public Relations
strategy ]
22

podcast, COMUGrad. This coverage was also a
post-event report that talked of our results from
Innovate Possible. Since this was a podcast about
COM graduate students, Chris Hurlbert was
interviewed. https://audioboo.fm/boos/2122834-
bucomgrad-podcast-adlab-with-chris-hurlbert
While we are very proud with the amount
of media coverage we received, we believe
that there could have been more attention
if we had planned the event on a different
weekend. April 19th was a weekend that
included not only Passover and Easter, both
of which are holidays that many students
leave the city for, but also the Boston
Marathon bombings one-year anniversary.
We believe that had it not been for those
reasons, we may received more interest from
the media in covering our event.
23

College students in Boston are unique. They
push themselves in all aspects of life and are
driven to succeed by an entrepreneurial spirit
that seems to thrive in this city. While this is true,
collaboration and networking between the city’s
250,000 students is surprisingly uncommon.
Innovate Possible, our campus event, aimed to
change this.
Through primary and secondary research, we
know that Millennials are willing to engage with a
brand that understands them and makes an effort
to organically connect with them. We also know
that Millennials will accept brand messaging
when it is exposed to them in an experiential
setting.
Innovate Possible created an engaging and
potentially ongoing experience for everyone
involved and worked to position AT&T as the
innovative company that it truly is. In order to get
Millennials excited about a potential career at
AT&T, we had to convince them that the company
has shed it’s corporate, dated image.
We invited students from Boston’s many colleges
and universities to compete at Innovate Possible.
At the event they were given information about
AT&T’s College Development Programs and
signed up for more information via Talent Catch
(an app used to capture data). Many students also
asked if the event was going to take place again
next year, which shows that there was genuine
excitement about the event and for AT&T.
Statement of Purpose
This event will provide an opportunity for
[Innovate Possible
campus event ]
24

students to network and will take the form of an
intercollegiate competition, testing the ability of
students to think strategically while leveraging
their innovative nature and creative minds.
Participants will be asked to leverage technology
(branded AT&T) into their solution of the problem
we present to them. The event will be limited
to 200 participants, and we will use Eventbrite
in order to control the amount of entrants and
gauge community interest. There will also be a
wait-list and people will be encouraged to come
watch if they don’t make the initial list.
Participants will arrive to our event at 11:00 AM
and will network for one hour. While networking
they will be asked to form teams of 4. At 12:00
PM we will stop the networking and pair up
anyone who is not currently in a team. We will
then distribute a “challenge pack” to each team
and they will be given 60 minutes to ‘solve’ the
problem presented and develop a succinct,
elevator pitch presentation. At 1:00 PM we
will stop the teams from working and start the
pitch (teams called to the stage at random).
Each team will be given 3 minutes to ‘sell’ their
idea to a panel of judges. Judges will score the
team on the following criteria: creativity, use of
technology, pitch skills, overall idea.
Below is the copy that was distributed to each
team in their challenge pack, images of which are
displayed on following pages.
Introduction to the Problem
America’s success in today’s global, digital
economy hinges on an educated workforce.
Yet one in every five students in this country
graduates high school later than they should.
Luckily, technology allows us to reach at-risk
students more effectively than ever before. AT&T
blends their passion for innovation and education
in an effort to raise graduation rates through their
AT&T Aspire initiative. To date, they have raised
$350 million but won’t stop there. AT&T has set
the bar high for philanthropic innovation. Now
your task is to raise it even higher.
Problem Background
Nationwide, 1.8 million students leave school
without a diploma; 66% of them are unemployed.
In today’s world, a high school diploma is a
prerequisite for many aspects of life and people
without one struggle to succeed. Students have
trouble graduating for a variety of reasons. Some
have learning and aural disabilities, some are
learning English as a second language, and some
come from underprivileged homes. To address
this, ASCD, a global leader in education success,
suggested schools offer:
• Tutoring
• Easier access to school materials
• Support services for at-risk students
Example
AT&T has already begun to address the major
problems facing students’ education. They
leverage existing AT&T technology, re-purposing
it in innovative ways. Recently, AT&T Research
Labs created two different types of eReaders
designed to make learning more accessible. The
eReader prototype features speech commands
and keyboard shortcuts, designed to make
it more accessible for students with visuals
disorders. The other eReader, StorEbook, is
designed to engage children with learning
disabilities through its expressive speech and text
highlighting features.
The Challenge
Through their Aspire initiative, AT&T has already
begun to re-purpose technology to raise
graduation rates through their Aspire Mentoring
Academy and socially innovative approach to
education. They focus on developing interactive
electronic ways to foster learning, ranging from
educational programs that allow students to
simulate scientific experiments to promoting
e-mentoring programs. Using their innovative
solutions such as StorEbook and The eReader as
inspiration, your challenge is to address one of
ASCD’s proposed educational solutions using
technology existing or imagined.
Given what you know about the low graduation
rate in America (1 in 5 students do not graduate
25

with their peers) and the problems that face
these students (lack of learning materials, lack
of attention, lack of educational stability) what
technology could you re-purpose or create to help
AT&T raise the U.S. graduation rate?
The Challenge
Each team will have 60 minutes to brainstorm a
solution for the problem. When those minutes are
up, it’s time to move onto the planning stage and
get ready to convince the judges that your idea is
the most innovative, philanthropic, technological
thing they’ve ever heard before or ever will again.
You will each get 3 minutes for your proposal
presentation, and after a short judging period, the
judges will present the winners.
Feel free to use any technology you may have at
your disposal including smartphones, tablets or
laptops.
26

In order to add value to our campaign, we were
able to partner with a number of startups and
local AT&T stores to raise awareness and help
with our larger repositioning goal.
Score My Pitch
A local startup reached out to us with and asked if
we’d like to demo their innovative software in our
competition. We eagerly said yes, and with the
help of Score My Pitch we were able to tabulate
scores live and instantly announce winners at
Innovate Possible.
Uber
The upscale taxicab service company Uber
partnered with us and offered participants in
our event a free ride. They gave new users a $25
credit, which is more than enough to get around
the city of Boston.
Handybook
This startup reached out to us to offer one hour of
free cleaning service to our participants.
Local AT&T Stores
We reached out to local retail stores and were
able to have a few people on site for our event.
This team showcased the new and innovative
technology that AT&T has to offer.
[Strategic
partnerships]
29

With Innovate Possible and its accompanying
campaign, our team was able to raise awareness
of the College Development Programs by 10%
between our pre-event and post-event surveys as
well as effectively capture interest in the College
Development Programs.
When asked about their interest in the Programs,
our survey findings showed a 2% increase in
interest with our student sample, with a 5%
increase in those being extremely interested.
With the Innovate Possible campaign, our team
was effectively able to place AT&T as a reputable
and prospective employer in the minds of Boston
University students.
Additionally, our campaign resulted in a 3% raise
in awareness of the student discount offered by
AT&T.
[Post-campaign
survey results ]
30
Have you heard of AT&T’s College Development
Programs?

31
How interested are you in applying for one of AT&T’s College Development Programs?
Would you consider working for AT&T? Are you aware that AT&T offers student
discounts to current college students?

Post-campaign Question:
How likely are you to recommend AT&T to family, friends and colleagues? 1 = very unlikely ; 10 = very likely
Post-campaign Question:
Are you considering AT&T as an employer of choice?
32

Our Innovate Possible campaign leveraged paid,
owned and earned media, along with corporate
donations and two events to achieve an ROI of
363%. With a cost of $2321.98 we were able to
achieve $10,768.20 in value earned assets. These
assets include traditional media impressions,
digital media impressions, journalistic coverage,
and value created by increasing brand
perception and the Net Promoter Score on
campus.
Our Innovate Possible intercollegiate challenge
worked to reposition the AT&T brand in Boston
among Millennial college students. These
students were able to experience the innovative
spirit of AT&T and were engaged with branded
content through the duration of the event. These
students then shared the story of our event with
their friends and family, which will help build the
AT&T brand organically through word of mouth.
We were able to generate 194 hot leads for AT&T
talent recruiters through both of our events,
and many participants were enthusiastic about
possible careers with AT&T in the future. A list of
our Talent Catch registrations can be found in the
Appendix on page 36.
We established a Net Promoter Score of 4.60 at
Boston University.
Our campaign was also $691.02 under budget,
resulting in a 23% savings for our client. A
detailed financial analysis of our campaign can
be found in the Appendix on page 35.
[Campaign finances
and summary ]
33

References
Primary Research
• Three focus groups with 21 students of
Boston University.
• One pre-event survey with 512 total
respondents.
• One post-event survey with 442 total
respondents.
Secondary Research
• Barton, C., Fromm, J., and Egan, C. (2012,
April). The Millennial Consumer: Debunking
Stereotypes. The Boston Consulting Group.
• Berland, E. (2012). 8095© Refreshed.
Edelman.Millennials in the Workplace:
An Infographic Storybook. (n.d.) Bentley
University.
• O’Donnell, F. (2012, August). Marketing
to Millennials – US – August 2012. Mintel
Oxygen.
• Pew Research Center. (2010, February).
Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to
Change.
Focus Group Questions
“Ideal Career” Focus Group Questions
1. What is your program of study at Boston
University?
2. How close are you to graduating?
3. Have you already started applying for jobs?
4. If so, how many?
5. If not, do you already have a list that you’d like
to start with?
6. How’s the process going?
7. What is it that you do/do not like about the
process?
8. What decisions do you make in where to
apply for a job?
9. What factors make you decide to apply to
certain places?
Demographic Profile
One focus group of nine participants included:
• Nine Boston University students; eight
undergraduate students and one graduate
student
• Six female participants and three male
participants
One focus group of five participants included:
• Five Boston University students; four
student
• Two male participants and three female
participants.
“Ideal Career” Focus Group Questions
1. How long have you been a customer of
AT&T?
2. Why did you choose AT&T as a service
provider?
3. Is AT&T the only service provider you’ve had?
4. If not, what made you switch to AT&T?
5. What has your experience with AT&T been
like so far? (in-store/customer service)
6. What words or experiences come to mind
when you think of AT&T as a business overall?
7. What do you think it would be like working for
AT&T?
8. Have you heard of AT&T’s College
Development Programs?
9. Would you ever consider applying to AT&T to
start you career?
Demographic Profile
One focus group of seven participants included:
• Seven Boston University students; six
students
• Four female participants and three male
participants
[Appendix
additional information]
34

Donations
Company Donation Remark Cost Value
Score My Pitch Use of their software $79 per month $0.00 $79.00
Uber $25 credit per registered atendee 82 registered $0.00 $2,050.00
Handybook 1 hour credit per registered atendee ($35 per hour rate) 82 registered $0.00 $2,870.00
Total $0 $4999
Earned Media
Company Remark Estimated Impressions Cost Value
WTBU Radio 5 minute interview 20000 $0.00 $59.20
BostInno PRlab Blog Post about our event 1000 $0.00 $10.00
The Heights (Boston College Newspaper) Summary of event and campaign 30000 $0.00 $400.00
COMUGrad Podcast 15 minute interview 200 $25.00
Total 51200 $0 $494.2
Owned Media
Channel Remark Followers / Impressions Cost Value
Facebook 112 $0.00 $50.00
Twitter 103 $0.00 $50.00
Microsite 937 $20.00 $100.00
Flyers Relevant information 1000 $25.00 $50.00
Total 2152 $45 $205
Paid Media
Company Remark Estimated Impressions Cost Value
BU bus ad space 2W before 20000 $120.00 $60.00
GSU digital ad space Free 1000 $0.00 $50.00
Total 21000 $120 $110
Events
Event Remark Number of People Cost Value
Innovate Possible Talent Catch & Brand Positioning value ($60 per registration) 27 $1,502.54 $1,620.00
Career Fair Talent Catch value ($10 per registration) 167 $104.00 $3,340.00
Total 167 $1606.54 $4960
Research Costs
Item Remark Description Cost Value
Starbucks Gift Cards Focus group 35 x $10 $350.00 $0.00
Dominos Pizza Focus group $167.44 $0.00
Supplies Name tags, cups, soda, ice $33.00 $0.00
Total $550.44 $0
Cost Value
Campaign Total $2321.98 $10768.2
ROI 363.75%
AT&T Account Budget
Cost versus value analysis
35

Talent Catch Results
36
First
Name Last
Name Email ZIP
Code Mobile Position
of
Interest Graduation
Month Graduation
Year
Alexandros Stefanakis avstef@bu.edu 02138 617-‐864-‐3994 Leadership May 2015
Nadeem Istfsm nadeemi@bu.edu 02090 617-‐840-‐9777 Internships January 2015
Zheng
Jie Zhong zhengjie@bu.edu 02215 917-‐583-‐6063 Internships|Leadership May 2014
Christina Lester christina.lester722@gmail.com 19119 215-‐439-‐3643 Internships May 2017
John Stooker heelforward@hotmail.com 02139
Esther Wu esthrwu@gmail.com 02134 Technical January 2015
Chelsea Berkowitz crberkowitz@yahoo.com 78230 210-‐488-‐8485 Leadership|Sales|Internships May 2014
Ro Li rosheru1@gmail.com 02115 813-‐464-‐1099
Tuquan Watt tuquanwatt@gmail.com 02134 617-‐704-‐3107 Leadership|Internships|Technical May 2015
Rachael Murphy rachael@bu.edu 02215 631-‐662-‐6085 Internships January 2015
Ang Gao gaoang@gmail.com 01810 978-‐807-‐2655 Technical May 2014
Jesse Goldshear jesselg@bu.edu 02215 215-‐896-‐1178 Leadership|Technical May 2014
Neha Gangasani ngangasani1@yahoo.com 75002 972-‐740-‐6342
Joseph Re joere@bu.edu 11694 718-‐598-‐0279 Internships|Technical May 2015
Marguerite Morgan mmorgan1194@yahoo.com 07820
Joshua Cole joshcole@bu.edu 02215 404-‐243-‐9078 Leadership|Internships May 2014
Sam bloom sammydude77@aol.com 06117 860-‐906-‐4019 Leadership May 2014
Francesco Deluca fdeluca@bu.edu 01821 401-‐965-‐5775 Leadership May 2014
anais Arias-‐Aragon anaisaaa@bu.edu 02215 415-‐265-‐7464 May 2017
Philip Noonan philip.j.noonan@gmail.com 02134 Internships|Leadership May 2017
Hailee Smith hsmith@bu.edu 02215 978-‐393-‐8292 2015
Kayla Tutino ktutino@bu.edu 02215
James Minto jamesmrminto@yahoo.com 34747 518-‐320-‐2534 Leadership June 2011
to
2006
Sarah Green greensogreen@hotmail.com 02215 617-‐862-‐6221 Leadership May 2015
Bethany Moore bemo@bu.edu 04239 207-‐491-‐2728 Leadership May 2015
Felicia Patel feliciapatel12@gmail.com 02215 617-‐668-‐9754 Technical May 2015
Ariana Rosenthal arianarosenthal@live.com 02189 617-‐599-‐4249 Internships June 2016
Greg Macatee gmacate@bu.edu 02134 610-‐908-‐9966 Internships May 2015
Bridget Johnson bcjoh@bu.edu 02134 612-‐205-‐2164 Internships 2014
Kirstie Urgasan kurgasan@gmail.com 02215 401-‐865-‐9787 Sales May 2016
Shelbi Ferber ferbers@bu.edu 02215 631-‐524-‐4858 Leadership|Sales|Technical|Internships May 2014
Sophie Alvi salvi@bu.edu 10514 914-‐417-‐5685 Internships May 2015
Jennie Petit jenniepetit1@gmail.com 02136 781-‐492-‐5880 Leadership June 2011
to
2006
Amanda Lynn alynn4981@yahoo.com 02215 617-‐756-‐4130 Internships|Technical August Before
2000
Chris Brooks option2401@gmail.com 02215
Ruth Dike mrdike@bu.edu O2119
Abraham Benavides abraham1@bu.edu 02215 617-‐780-‐8402 Internships May 2014
Yves Bouquet jacksonmr69@gmail.com 02136 617-‐637-‐1299 Sales April 2011
to
2006
Emily Hayman ehayman94@gmail.com 94956 Leadership|Internships|Sales|Technical May 2016
Alexandros Stefanakis avstef@bu.edu 02138 617-‐864-‐3994 Leadership May 2015
Nadeem Istfsm nadeemi@bu.edu 02090 617-‐840-‐9777 Internships January 2015
Zheng
Jie Zhong zhengjie@bu.edu 02215 917-‐583-‐6063 Internships|Leadership May 2014
Christina Lester christina.lester722@gmail.com 19119 215-‐439-‐3643 Internships May 2017
John Stooker heelforward@hotmail.com 02139
Esther Wu esthrwu@gmail.com 02134 Technical January 2015
Chelsea Berkowitz crberkowitz@yahoo.com 78230 210-‐488-‐8485 Leadership|Sales|Internships May 2014
Ro Li rosheru1@gmail.com 02115 813-‐464-‐1099
Tuquan Watt tuquanwatt@gmail.com 02134 617-‐704-‐3107 Leadership|Internships|Technical May 2015
Rachael Murphy rachael@bu.edu 02215 631-‐662-‐6085 Internships January 2015
Ang Gao gaoang@gmail.com 01810 978-‐807-‐2655 Technical May 2014
Jesse Goldshear jesselg@bu.edu 02215 215-‐896-‐1178 Leadership|Technical May 2014
Neha Gangasani ngangasani1@yahoo.com 75002 972-‐740-‐6342
Joseph Re joere@bu.edu 11694 718-‐598-‐0279 Internships|Technical May 2015
Marguerite Morgan mmorgan1194@yahoo.com 07820
Joshua Cole joshcole@bu.edu 02215 404-‐243-‐9078 Leadership|Internships May 2014
Sam bloom sammydude77@aol.com 06117 860-‐906-‐4019 Leadership May 2014
Francesco Deluca fdeluca@bu.edu 01821 401-‐965-‐5775 Leadership May 2014
anais Arias-‐Aragon anaisaaa@bu.edu 02215 415-‐265-‐7464 May 2017
Philip Noonan philip.j.noonan@gmail.com 02134 Internships|Leadership May 2017
Hailee Smith hsmith@bu.edu 02215 978-‐393-‐8292 2015
Kayla Tutino ktutino@bu.edu 02215
James Minto jamesmrminto@yahoo.com 34747 518-‐320-‐2534 Leadership June 2011
to
2006
Sarah Green greensogreen@hotmail.com 02215 617-‐862-‐6221 Leadership May 2015
Bethany Moore bemo@bu.edu 04239 207-‐491-‐2728 Leadership May 2015
Felicia Patel feliciapatel12@gmail.com 02215 617-‐668-‐9754 Technical May 2015
Ariana Rosenthal arianarosenthal@live.com 02189 617-‐599-‐4249 Internships June 2016
Greg Macatee gmacate@bu.edu 02134 610-‐908-‐9966 Internships May 2015
Bridget Johnson bcjoh@bu.edu 02134 612-‐205-‐2164 Internships 2014
Kirstie Urgasan kurgasan@gmail.com 02215 401-‐865-‐9787 Sales May 2016
Shelbi Ferber ferbers@bu.edu 02215 631-‐524-‐4858 Leadership|Sales|Technical|Internships May 2014
Sophie Alvi salvi@bu.edu 10514 914-‐417-‐5685 Internships May 2015
Jennie Petit jenniepetit1@gmail.com 02136 781-‐492-‐5880 Leadership June 2011
to
2006
Amanda Lynn alynn4981@yahoo.com 02215 617-‐756-‐4130 Internships|Technical August Before
2000
Chris Brooks option2401@gmail.com 02215
Ruth Dike mrdike@bu.edu O2119

37
Abraham Benavides abraham1@bu.edu 02215 617-‐780-‐8402 Internships May 2014
Yves Bouquet jacksonmr69@gmail.com 02136 617-‐637-‐1299 Sales April 2011
to
2006
Emily Hayman ehayman94@gmail.com 94956 Leadership|Internships|Sales|Technical May 2016
Kevin Zhao kzhao9988@gmail.com 98006 425-‐753-‐8616 Internships May 2015
Syed
Ali
Raza Zaidi a7ireza@gmail.com 02215 617-‐460-‐4350 Technical July 2015
Mengtan Xu xumh@bc.edu 02135 Leadership May 2014
Jiashu Li jasonlee@bu.edu 02134 857-‐210-‐3332 Leadership May 2014
Thinh Nguyen thinhnguyen007@gmail.com 02125 857-‐260-‐0167 Sales May 2015
Luisa Reyes luisa.sophia.reyes@gmail.com 08873 Internships May 2015
Amanda Maizel amaizel@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Sales May 2014
Blair Bailey bmbailey@bu.edu 02370 781-‐424-‐8849 Internships September 2014
Victor Hanas vhanas1@bu.edu 02215 410-‐916-‐7232 Internships January 2015
Theresa Bui tbui22@gmail.com 02155
Annie Tran annie.tr_109@yahoo.com 02135 617-‐922-‐8474 Internships May 2015
Leslie Fung lesliecfung@gmail.com 94122 415-‐963-‐2968 Internships May 2017
Cassandra Kocek ckocek@bu.edu 02215 207-‐251-‐3725 May 2016
Will Sampson wwlsampson@gmail.com 02134 434-‐987-‐2837 Technical 2011
to
2006
Carissa RyAn thenightmarebeforevalentines@gmail.com 02134 978-‐935-‐8358 Sales January 2015
Saif Wilkes-‐Davis saifmaria@yahoo.com 29206 Internships May 2019
Viktor Gennadievich vgennadievich@bu.edu 06089 985-‐2134 Leadership May 2015
Ron Glandian rgland@bu.edu 91202 818-‐823-‐5154 Leadership|Internships May 2015
Jake Gordon jgordon1@bu.edu 20854 301-‐787-‐6088 Sales May 2017
Angela Nawang nawang@bu.edu 11377 347-‐671-‐3864 Internships May 2016
Pietro Contu contu@bu.edu 02215 617-‐869-‐4148 Technical|Internships
Lauren Ribner lribner@bu.edu 02467 617-‐122-‐1333
Ben Greene bmgreene@bu.edu 02446
Neha Khemani khemani1@aol.com 60156 847-‐554-‐6758 Leadership May 2015
Nick Taylor x8theclash8x@aol.com 02134 Leadership May 2014
Francis Zamora funkyconversechick@yahoo.com 97007 971-‐563-‐5889 Leadership|Internships May 2014
Drew Bergman dbergman@bu.edu 02215 763-‐486-‐0268 May 2017
Ariele Friedman arielef@bu.edu 02446 908-‐745-‐9392 Technical|Internships May 2015
Matthew Higgins higginsmt@gmail.com 02134 413-‐636-‐4483 Leadership September 2014
Rui
Min Sim rmsim@bu.edu 02215 347-‐334-‐4229 Leadership May 2017
Yasmine Baez yb9449@att.com 02108 617-‐971-‐7032
Joo
Sung Kim jskim@bu.edu 02215 201-‐566-‐8335 Leadership|Sales|Technical|Internships May 2017
Morgan Perry map200@bu.edu 19060 610-‐742-‐8433 Leadership May 2014
Ali
Raza Zaidi a7ireza@gmail.com 02215 Leadership|Sales|Internships July 2015
Winnie Chen wchen@bu.edu 02215 857-‐284-‐9526 Leadership|Sales October 2014
Michael Beucler michael.beucler@gmail.com 02446 860-‐318-‐1220 Sales|Internships|Leadership May 2014
Briana West bmwest@bu.edu 02215 Leadership May 2014
Ariana Papas arianapappas@gmail.com 02215 508-‐596-‐2005 Leadership|Internships May 2014
Yomerys De
Leon yomerys23@yahoo.com 02215 Leadership|Sales|Internships May 2014
Salman T
Hussain salman.hussain2@mail.mcgill.ca 02215 Leadership|Technical|Internships June 2014
Diana Freyman dfreyman@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Sales May 2014
Michelle Jay mjay@bu.edu 02246 603-‐589-‐4258 Internships May 2014
Riley Cameron rileyecam@gmail.com 02215 Leadership|Sales January 2014
Sajan Bathla sbathla92@hotmail.com 02215 Leadership May 2014
Elan Plotkin elanp@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Sales|Technical|Internships May 2017
Esther Wu estherwu@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Technical|Sales January 2015
WonJae Yang wjbyang@bu.edu 02215 Internships December 2015
Saniya Datwani saniya17@bu.edu 02215 Internships May 2017
Max Timchenko maxvt@bu.edu 02215 Internships May 2015
Greg Soffera gsoffera@bu.edu 02215 Internships May 2015
Joyce Fu joycefu@bu.edu 02215 Internships May 2015
Matthew Alex matthewcalex@gmail.com 02215 Leadership|Sales May 2014
Dana Centofanti dcento@bu.edu 02215 Technical|Internships January 2013
Philip Jeng philip.j.jeng@gmail.com 02215 Leadership|Technical|Sales May 2014
Sean Lee seanelee@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Technical|Sales May 2014
Jiaranai Fuganjananon jiaranai@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Technical|Sales|Internships May 2015
Xin Xu xunx@bu.edu 02215 Internships May 2017
Anna Stathopoulos astath@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Internships May 2015
Sheena Banerjee sheenab@bu.edu 02215 Internships May 2015
Diep Tran dntran@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Sales|Internships May 2017
Alisha Mehra alisham@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Technical|Sales May 2014
Mark Benilov mark.benilov@gmail.com 02215 Technical|Internships May 2016
Amanda Durocher aedurocher@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Technical|Sales January 2014
Sejute Guha seguha138@gmail.com 02215 Leadership|Sales May 2014
Dhanush Ram dhanush91@hotmail.com 02215 Internships|Leadership May 2014
Michael Tang tangmichael.hk@gmail.com 02215 Leadership|Sales|Technical|Internships May 2015
Quinn Rodriguez quinnrod@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Sales|Internships May 2015
Sara Ryan sryan15@bu.edu 02215 Leadership|Internships May 2017
Hsin-‐Chiao Lin hsinlin@bu.edu 02215 857-‐272-‐6647 Sales|Leadership May 2015
Ashlee Goedken agoedken@bu.edu 02215 630-‐999-‐7781 Leadership|Sales May 2014
Leora Klachkin unknown@bu.edu 02446 973-‐953-‐0313 Leadership|Internships May 2014
Shiffas Salim ssalim@bu.edu 02169 617-‐858-‐7285 Leadership|Technical May 2014
Caroline Shaw cshaw16@bu.edu 02215 203-‐644-‐6805 Technical|Sales|Internships May 2014

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