Challenge

Edge first met the new dean of UH’s Conrad N. Hilton College in 2003, who saught fresh approaches to communications and recruitment.

• Though the college was a well-known name in the educational circles of hotel and restaurant management, it was slipping in prestige and influence.
• The college had lethargic marketing practices and limited recruitment resources.
• The college suffered from a lack of cohesiveness and pride among its alumni and other potential supporters.
• The college’s high-school recruitment statistics were flat.
• Fundraising at the college was sluggish, having had the “best year ever” two full decades earlier, when the Hilton Foundation contributed $ 20 million for a facility expansion.
• The college had responded to the situation by attracting a highly regarded new dean, John Bowen, and new leaders for college communications and development – and deciding to update and strengthen its brand and messaging, which is how Edge became involved.

Opportunity

For purposes of messaging, Edge developed this “promise” to be manifested in all facets of UH communications:
The most hospitable community in higher education.

 Since we began collaborating with Hilton –

• The college has been equipped with new resources, based on leadership’s input and aims. Included have been new development and recruitment assets, a new college website and increasingly appealing reports to the community.
• High-school applications are up 300%
• The SAT average of applicants is up 63 points
• The college has doubled the number of internships available to students
• Website visits have risen from 1,000 to more than 6,000 daily
• Development was been reinvigorated, setting a record in 2007
• Set record in 2007
• Total endowments have risen from 58 to 103
• Average gifta from alumni have risen from $112  to $649
• Attendance at college events has dramatically risen
• Seven new alumni chapters added in ’07
• Notable year-to-year increases in first-time donors.