Hillsdale College’s first television commercial hits home screens Thursday, emphasizing the aspects of its mission statement.
The brand-building advertisement with a six-figure budget premiered online Wednesday and will raise awareness of the college, said Matt Schlientz, vice president of marketing. Focusing on freedom, moral virtue, higher learning, and religion, the commercial is meant to leave audiences grateful that Hillsdale is advancing the issues about which they care, Schlientz said.
“It’s about everything the college does,” Schlientz said. “We’re not asking them to do anything. It’s not a call to action…It’s a broad brand spot.”
Regional Michigan cable stations begin playing the ad Thursday. Starting the week of Sept. 26, the commercial will appear nationally on Fox networks and more broadly in Michigan. The campaign, which targets those ages 45 and above, will last through Dec. 31, Schlientz said.
Scenes of classrooms, Mossey Library, Slayton Arboretum, music rehearsals, athletic practices, and campus transition into each other as a voice-over actor describes Hillsdale’s principles of freedom, moral character, and faith.
“I’m very impressed,” said senior Emily Lehman, who participated in the commercial’s shoot. “I think they did a great job of expressing what Hillsdale is about. The music is particularly well done.”
The ad — filmed in late July by Coldwater Media Group from Colorado Springs, Colorado — highlights 10 students and three professors.
Lehman said filming was a star-studded experience. She sat in Howard Music Hall after going through hair and makeup, playing a piano as fog and fake sunshine enwrapped her.
“I was making it up, which went over really well because then I could decide how my hands were going to look a little more,” Lehman said. “It was actually really fun.”
The film team recorded senior Danny Drummond lifting weights as he stood on the Hillsdale H printed on the matted floor of the JAM fitness room in the Roche Sports Complex.
Drummond said based on the success the college has had with advertising on talk radio, he is not surprised about the move to television.
“I think it’s kind of the next step in the process,” Drummond said. “On the appropriate channels, on the appropriate news networks that identify with our own beliefs, I think it would have a very good impact and bring attention to the college.”