University of Arizona Issues Online Marketing RFP

The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), on behalf of the University of Arizona has issued a marketing RFP for the division of Student Affairs & Enrollment Management Academic Initiatives & Student Success with an online marketing campaign for the VETS Center.

Veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have enrolled in colleges and universities have steadily increased in recent years and are expected to continue to increase in the years to come. The benefits of the post 9/11 G.I. Bill has been a huge benefit to returning veterans, but they arrive on campus with complex needs. The University of Arizona (UA) understood this early on and established the VETS Center in 2009 to create a space where student veterans would have access to comprehensive resources and in-person support.

The VETS Center is crucial to student retention as returning veterans have a unique path when returning to college. The student veterans are set apart from their campus peers – by age, life experience, entrenchment in military culture and in many cases from war inflicted injuries and post-traumatic stress.

UA Online currently has over 200 veterans enrolled and is unique from other online academic institutions as we do not place students in a groups of a thousand and just have them move through a self-paced course with little to no interaction from classmates or the instructor. Instead at UA Online we want every course to be highly interactive and that can certainly be seen in the “Professional Resiliency Colloquium”. Cohorts are placed in groups of 20-25 and when reviewing course topics such as “Goal Setting”, “Self Defeating Thoughts”, and “Wins and Losses” all students are required to share their comments and perspectives online. Through various modalities of voice, video or written copy, students learn about each other’s struggles and successes.

Getting the Word Out – UA Vets Friendly Campus

The VETS Center is looking to publicize the benefits of enrolling in the SERV online courses and increase enrollment of veterans to UA Online Our comprehensive marketing plan will tie into all of these areas. Marketing components will include: Online and print campaigns with organizations reaching the military and veteran population, partnering with the Office of Digital Learning to promote the SERV online curriculum and outreach to current student veterans.

Statement of Work

The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), on behalf of the University of Arizona (UA) and Student Affairs & Enrollment Management Academic Initiatives & Student Success (SAEM/AISS) is soliciting proposals from firms specializing in online marketing.

Deliverables will include:

• Facilitate several meetings of internal university leadership council to validate campaign priorities and build consensus on moving forward

• Audience research & development summary

• Campaign messaging

• Video concept, script

• Display and search advertising

Proposal due by November 29th, 2016

The University of Arizona
Procurement and Contracting Services
PO Box 210300
Tucson, Arizona 85721
Attn: Tom Fiebiger C.P.M.