College of Western Idaho
Higher thinking leads to higher numbers—growing enrollment against the trend.
Our Role
Production
Media Planning
Artificial Intelligence
Purpose & Positioning
Branding
Campaign Development
Creative Strategy
College of Western Idaho (CWI) is Idaho’s largest community college, built on the promise of making education accessible, affordable, and career-focused. With degrees under $10,000 and critical programs in adult education, workforce development, and dual credit, CWI fills a gap in higher education for area students.
Unapologetically student-first, CWI focuses on employability, affordability, and accessibility—proving that higher education isn’t just for the privileged few. It’s for anyone ready to take the next step.
The Opportunity
Creating opportunity in uncertainty.
College isn’t out of reach—it just feels that way. For CWI’s students, the real barrier wasn’t deadlines or tuition. It was believing they belonged.
We weren’t competing with other schools; we were competing with uncertainty. The single parent wondering if life will ever change. The warehouse worker stuck in a cycle. The first-gen student navigating it alone. The veteran searching for purpose. The dreamer, the reskiller, the one who never got their shot.
The hardest part of college? Choosing to go.
CWI didn’t need to sell the value of education—they already believed in it. They just needed permission to bet on themselves. This was about recognizing grit, celebrating ambition, and proving that confidence isn’t a prerequisite—it’s built along the way.
Understanding the Barriers
Confidence Gap
Many students—whether fresh out of high school or balancing work and family—felt unsure about their ability to succeed in college.Perception Problem
Community colleges often suffer from a lack of prestige, despite their affordability and impact.Missed Opportunity
CWI had a strong value proposition, but it wasn’t breaking through in a way that resonated with prospective students.
CWI had something to prove—we made sure no one could ignore it.
The Solution
Built for the Long Game
CWI didn’t just need a recruitment campaign; it needed a rallying cry. “Let’s Get Started” was more than a tagline—it was a direct, empowering push past hesitation and self-doubt. This wasn’t about choosing a school; it was about choosing to go to school at all.
By meeting students where they were—physically and emotionally—we shifted the conversation from uncertainty to action, proving that higher education starts with belief.
But we knew a one-off campaign wasn’t going to cut it. Changing minds doesn’t happen overnight. Changing behaviors takes even longer. That’s why “Let’s Get Started” was designed as a multi-year effort—one that evolves alongside the students we serve.
Phase 1
Tackled self-doubt, flipping hesitation into confidence.
Phase 2 - Launching Spring 2025
Doubled down on defiance, proving that CWI students don’t just show up—they stand out.
Each phase isn’t just about recruiting students—it’s about reshaping their belief in what’s next.
The Research
Listening to Learn, Researching to Rise.
Through both quantitative and qualitative efforts, we sought to understand the community's awareness and perception of CWI. We needed a pre-campaign benchmark to understand where we were starting and what we were up against.
Through surveys and focus groups, we spoke to high schoolers, adult learners, current students and parents. We uncovered valuable insights around the perceptions of community college, CWI and what the "shopping" experience for college looks like across a diverse student set.
LET'S GET STARTED HERO SPOT
The video dramatically brings the campaign's key insight to life. Our biggest competitor isn’t other colleges it’s self-doubt.
The spot features diverse faces and the inner monologue of discouraging self-talk. The script draws the audience in with the unlikely line “I am not good enough.” which is the start of a captivating palindrome script.
At the midpoint in the film, the script begins to reverse, and the tone and music shift as we revisit the same cast of characters, replacing the look of self-doubt with self-confidence as the film takes an unexpected turn to resolve in a supportive message of hope.
The Work
Breaking the Rules to Break Through.
Phase 1 of this multi-year campaign was built around flipping the script on common self-doubt themes and turning them into powerful words of encouragement.
We knew for this to work, we needed to do something brave. We needed to go against the playbook of status quo college advertising and messaging.
“Hey CWI, we want to create a spot to promote awareness that will have no images of the campus, no smiling students, no inspiring teachers, no integrated branding, and we want the starting line to be ‘I am not good enough.’ What do you say?”
Spoiler alert: they said yes. And it paid off. After the spot aired during the Academy Awards, CWI received an outpouring of messages from people who felt truly inspired by what they saw. (Wow!)
Our comprehensive media buy ensured that we showed up in our student’s daily lives. In addition to live and connected TV, we were on the radio during their commutes, placed billboards next to high schools, spoke to adult learners during news reports, and delivered many out-of-home executions in high-traffic areas like local sporting events and popular busy shopping centers.
radio
Both traditional and digital radio continues to play a critical role in the media mix for companies looking for brand awareness. With our need to improve awareness of the college, we needed to find a way to translate a very visual campaign into something that creatively tells the story over audio. In the same fashion as the rest of the campaign, we share the story of overcoming self-doubt to do something big.
“SOMETHING BIG”
From self-doubt to submission—CWI turns “I can’t” into “I did.”
“Overcoming doubt”
From doubt to decision—CWI is the “yes, you can” you’ve been waiting for.
“we believe”
Every start matters—CWI is here to make yours count.
“SOMEDAY”
Turning “someday” into today—CWI makes starting possible.
Challenge Accepted,
Challenge Defeated.
4.4%
Increase in enrollment, compared to a decline of 37% nationwide during the same period. RCE)
5.0%
Lift in brand awareness, an impressive stat considering a 4-month run length.
98%
Of CWI students are Idahoans, underlining the importance and impact of CWI on Idaho’s workforce, economy, and, most importantly, people.
CWI isn’t here to fit in. It’s here to stand out—just like its students. We didn’t follow the rules of college marketing. We broke them. Because real change doesn’t come from playing along—it comes from going against the grain.
