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UAA: 9 Programs Saved, 28% Application Growth

Nine community college programs at the University of Alaska Anchorage were under threat of elimination. Enrollment was declining, and broad awareness spending wasn’t reaching the 17–34-year-olds scattered across Alaska’s vast geography. RC Strategies replaced mass marketing with precision: geo-fenced, program-level targeting with career-outcome messaging, deployed in sustained 3-month blitzes over 18 months. Applications grew 28% year-over-year. Every program survived. In enrollment marketing, the stakes don’t get higher than program survival — and precision targeting delivered where broad spending had failed.

The challenge

Nine programs at the University of Alaska Anchorage were under direct threat of elimination due to declining enrollment. The audience — 17–34-year-olds across Alaska’s vast, geographically dispersed communities — couldn’t be reached through broad awareness campaigns. Traditional marketing was spending without accountability, and enrollment continued to drop.

The outcome

28% application growth year-over-year saved nine community college programs from elimination. Precision-targeted, program-level campaigns replaced broad awareness spending across Alaska’s geographically dispersed market — reaching 17–34-year-olds with career-outcome messaging through sustained 3-month blitzes over 18 months. Every program survived. Every dollar was accountable to enrollment outcomes.

+28%

application growth year-over-year

9

community college programs saved from elimination

18

months of sustained, multi-phase campaign execution

Overview

About

RC Strategies serves as the enrollment marketing partner for the University of Alaska Anchorage — deploying precision-targeted, program-level digital campaigns across Alaska’s dispersed communities. Our geo-fenced, multi-phase approach replaced broad awareness spending with accountable enrollment marketing tied to specific career outcomes and program survival.

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Precision Enrollment Marketing for Programs on the Brink

When programs face elimination, awareness campaigns aren’t the answer. The University of Alaska Anchorage needed enrollment growth at the individual program level — nine programs, each with distinct career pathways, serving a 17–34-year-old audience scattered across one of the most geographically dispersed states in the country. RC Strategies built the campaign architecture to match the challenge: precise, accountable, and sustained.

We designed program-level campaigns — not institutional branding — with messaging tied to specific career outcomes. Each program received its own targeting strategy, creative, and conversion path. Geo-fenced digital campaigns reached prospective students in communities across Alaska where traditional media has no concentration, putting the right program in front of the right prospect at the right time. Video and digital creative were produced to connect career aspiration to program enrollment.

The campaign wasn’t a single push. We executed multi-phase 3-month blitzes over an 18-month engagement — each phase optimized from the performance data of the last. This created compounding momentum: sustained enrollment growth rather than a single spike that fades. Applications grew 28% year-over-year. All nine programs survived. The same geographic challenge RC Strategies solves in military recruiting and other verticals — dispersed populations, no urban concentration — was the foundation of the approach.