A university with a reputation problem.
An industry in need of women workers.
And a female icon from WWII.
University of Phoenix
“We Can Do IT”
Case Study
When we started working on University of Phoenix, we were skeptical.
Enrollment was declining, their graduation rate was abysmal, and their reputation was questionable; a diploma mill that put profit over people. If we were going to make a meaningful difference for them, they would have to change how they act, not just what they said. People would see through anything less than authentic.
Working with our team at 180LA, we convinced our clients that they had to commit to using their advertising to champion something good in the world.
We realized a few things:
As the largest online university, they were actually the university with the most female students in the U.S.
One of their most popular degree programs is IT (information technology).
But only 26% of technology jobs in America were being filled by women.
The tech industry had a massive shortage of workers, and an increasing level of jobs to be filled. We saw this as a huge opportunity to benefit University of Phoenix, the tech industry, and the world: leveraging an untapped female workforce by inspiring more women to consider a degree in IT.
Imagining the future by looking to the past.
Female empowerment icon Rosie the Riveter had inspired women to join the male-dominated manufacturing industry during WWII.
Could we update Rosie for the 21st century, to get women to consider a career in the male-dominated tech industry?
Rebooting Rosie
Animated Short
Making Of Film
Good for business
The campaign became the most successful University of Phoenix had ever run.
Our film was viewed over 21 million times. UOPX saw a 371% lift in search traffic, the highest branded search lift for an educational advertiser to date.
Good for the world
Countless women were inspired to consider a new career path.
We Can Do IT succeeded in sparking action, actually changing the ratio at the UOPX college of IT, with a 34% increase in female IT enrollment over the year the campaign ran.
