Challenge
Charged with the ownership and implementation of Texas’ strategic plan for higher education, “Closing the Gaps by 2015”, the THECB identified the need to engage the State’s business, education, community leaders and most importantly parents and students on a much higher level in order to meet college readiness and enrollment goals outlined in the strategic plan.
Insight
Education campaigns have historically focused on traditional paid and PSA driven advertising. While these campaign can generate awareness for the issue, they do little in terms of creating behavioral changes which leads to cultural shifts within a community.
Solution
Originated by lead agency Milkshake Media, the Generation TX (GenTX) movement was designed to engage an entire community around education success and student support. The GenTX movement is equal parts inspiration and the information; serving as an identity/badge to this generation of students and uniting community resources to better connect students to information about how to prepare, apply and pay for college. Initial efforts in the 2010 efforts focused on San Antonio and Ft. Worth and expanded to include El Paso, Dallas/Ft. Worth Metorplex, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley by Spring 2011.
Responsible for community outreach, partnership development and event production, Mercury Mambo engaged community partners, school districts, higher education institutions and business leaders to bring the Generation TX movement to life in communities across Texas. Mercury Mambo met with key stakeholders in each market, hosted GenTX training sessions to engage local advocates, worked in conjunction with city leaders and local/statewide celebrities to gain public endorsements, participated in college readiness expos, created citywide launch events and high school pep-rallies, managed communication and supported (19) P16 Councils across the state and energized students with cool GenTX swag giveaways and incentives.
Results
To date, Mercury Mambo outreach efforts have culminated in over 78 key partnerships established across 31 markets throughout the state. Through these partnerships and as a result of direct engagement, over 1.5 million students of Generation TX have been exposed to the movement!