Blinking floor lights followed by the rumble of an incoming Metrorail train. The rev of the engine as a Metrobus leaves its stop and glides into rush-hour traffic. And in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Washington, D.C. commuters and travelers, a new campaign from Maryland Applied Graduate Engineering and the A. James Clark School of Engineering carried the message of the value of a graduate engineering degree across the nation's capital.
Maryland Applied Graduate Engineering and the A. James Clark School of Engineering partnered with Outfront Media and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to roll out an awareness campaign for Maryland Engineering.
Outfront Media is a North American media company that brokers advertisement opportunities to foster company growth. WMATA operates transit service in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including bus lines under the name Metrobus and rapid transit service under the name Metrorail.
The campaign included a “station domination” of two WMATA stations: Union Station, which is a connection hub for Metrorail and the Amtrak, Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC), and Virginia Railway Express (VRE), and L’Enfant Plaza, which connects the Metrorail yellow and green lines with the orange, blue, and silver lines, dominating the stations with hundred of ads appearing on almost every surface, including columns, turnstiles, floors, and digital displays.
Metrobuses in the D.C. area were also outfitted with tail light display ads, with some of the bus lines finding their way onto the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland campus. Finally, digital ads with mobile geofencing parameters rounded out the campaign, which spanned the entire month of September 2023.
The projected impact of the campaign was over five million impressions from working professionals in the nation's center for government employees and private contractors. The ads included a QR code or a link which took users to the landing page world.umd.edu. The landing page included next steps for those interested in a professional graduate degree, an undergraduate degree, or graduate-level research, as well as highlighting key research contributions from Maryland Engineering, driving interest in MAGE and elevating its profile among its target demographic within the region.
A. James Clark School of Engineering Dean Dr. Samuel Graham, Jr. and Assistant Dean for Continuing Education Dr. George Syrmos in Union Station September 2023
Scroll through the slideshow below to see more photos from the campaign. Click photos to enlarge. All photos ©Mike Morgan.
