Turning audience insight into enrollment growth
Point Loma Nazarene University, a private Christian institution in San Diego, partnered with Red Door Interactive to sharpen its brand story, rethink its media mix, and drive more enrollments without increasing its year-over-year paid media budget.
Our partnership with PLNU spans the full marketing funnel, built on the idea that brand-building and performance work best as one system rather than separate efforts. As PLNU entered FY25-26 with higher enrollment goals and a flat media budget, that integrated approach mattered more than ever. This campaign created an opportunity to advance that strategy while improving the path from inquiry to enrollment.
To improve that path, Red Door conducted audience research to better understand how students perceived PLNU and what influenced their enrollment decisions. The findings revealed opportunities to strengthen awareness, clarify PLNU's differentiators, and make the "Founded on Finding You" campaign more relevant to today's students.
Making PLNU's value more relevant
Building on the research, our Brand Strategy & Creative team refreshed the campaign around the needs and priorities of today's students. The new approach moved beyond broad, purpose-driven messaging to clearly communicate PLNU's value and show students what the university could offer them.
Building awareness across the journey
This campaign continued a multi-year shift in PLNU's media mix, moving from a strategy weighted more heavily toward inquiry generation to a balanced blend of brand and performance. Guided by audience insights and channel performance, our Paid Media team added out-of-home placements, kiosks on feeder school campuses, podcasts, movie theater ads, and Reddit. These channels expanded PLNU's reach, created familiarity across more touchpoints, and fueled lower-funnel media when students were ready to act.
Exceeding Enrollment Goals
PLNU exceeded its enrollment and application goals for the year and posted its strongest Fall inquiry-to-enrollment rate to date.
above total enrollment goal
ABOVE TOTAL Application start GOAL
Year-over-Year lift in Fall inquiry-to-enrollment rate
Let’s build something greater together.
Ready to start a partnership built on clarity, collaboration, and real results?