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Olivet College is now the proud owner of a digital billboard in Jackson, Mich., located on Boardman road./Courtesy photo
Recently, Olivet College has gone to the board to attracting new students – the billboard that is.
That’s right, Olivet College is now the proud owner of a digital billboard in Jackson, located on Boardman Road.
With an application process that recently took place on Olivet College’s Facebook page, friends and families of Olivet alumni could nominate their alum for a chance to see their name presented on the billboard in white font behind a bright crimson background.
Nikki O’Meara is director of content strategy with the department of college relations, and was directly involved with the billboard project.
“We wanted this billboard to reach to the alumni and let them know we appreciate them,” O’Meara said. “February we will be focusing on alumni names and in March we are going to switch to deposited student names to try and get Olivet’s message out.”
Recent graduate Drew Thompson ‘15 is one of the lucky first few whose name was presented on the billboard. Thompson was surprised with a picture of the billboard displaying his first and last name and graduation year by his family who nominated him via Facebook.
“It is an honor to be on the first billboard. Olivet gave me four great years of baseball and school that I will never forget. It is where I met some people I will stay in contract with for my entire life. Meeting people that you have never met before and staying so close to them after is hard at other schools,” Thompson said. “That’s what makes Olivet so great. I hope the billboard can make Olivet grow and that they give back to the people that go there.”
The billboard has also been a good tool for many teachers to use in the classroom to emphasize the importance of advertising to current students. Senior marketing major Jordyn Mackool heard about the billboard through her classes at Olivet.
“As a marketing student, I think that it was a really smart move to get a billboard. Most of the people that I talk to that are not from this area have no idea that Olivet College exists,” Mackool said. “I believe that the billboard will be a positive impact to the school. When people drive by and see the name ‘Olivet College’ they will want to know more and look into it.”
Mackool’s classes even took the time to strategize ideas to be on the billboard.
“The billboard should represent the school, so maybe a few lines from the Olivet College Compact. Or a picture of a current student quoting their experience at the school,” Mackool said.
The college is hoping to one day have more billboards across the state, but for now perfecting the Jackson location billboard is the main goal. With a digital billboard in the college’s pocket the possibilities are endless.
“I hope the impact of the billboard will bring more students and athletes to Olivet so we can grow as a school,” Thompson said.