PROJECT GOAL
To develop a successful yield piece: a packet of materials that informs admitted students about some of the highlights of school life at Georgetown and inspires them to accept and attend.

PROJECT BACKGROUND
As one of the nation's top law schools, and the largest, Georgetown Law Center attracts an impressive number of applicants—nearly 12,000 in 2002, more than any law school ever had before. To compete with the likes of Harvard and Yale, Georgetown sends those admitted to their program (around 2,400) a packet of materials meant to inform and inspire them to attend. The law center has the additional advantage of being located in Washington, D.C., within walking distance of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice.

Georgetown came to Kinetik eager for a departure from their formal, academic look; something that would stand out and set the Law Center apart through appearance and impression, and reach the right people at exactly the right time. With an opportunity to help shape what this promotional piece should be, Kinetik assumed the challenge of meeting multiple audience demands; the Georgetown community, who wanted the piece to properly reflect the school; and a diverse student population of varying ages, from across the country and abroad. Kinetik needed to find a way to celebrate the access afforded by greater Washington while at the same time communicate that community comes from more than location alone.

STEP SUMMARY
SUMMARY OF STEPS
Step 1: The client team presented the problem along with a pre-determined end (they had already decided not only what victory looked like but also the vehicle to get them there). However, by redefining the problem, we determined the way to arrive at victory wasn't all that clear.

Step 2: Together with the client team, we established not only the desired end-result and how it would be measured but also the parameters for the ideas and culture the pieces needed to communicate.

Step 5: While anyone can get a college or university view book simply by contacting the admissions office, yield pieces are typically only sent to students that are admitted. Therefore, finding examples required a true team effort. The design team also spent time mapping out different potential directions on paper for pricing before narrowing the range for Step 6.

Step 6: The design team made full-scale prototypes of three different directions for a final solution.

Step 7: The presentation was made to key decision makers for buy-in before presentation to the entire team. Key selling points to use at the all-inclusive meeting were discussed at these earlier meetings.

Step 8: Both client- and design-end project managers worked together to engage the teams.

Step 9: Both teams contributed to the solution. As a cost saving measure, the client even convinced students to participate in the hand assembly work needed to complete the final fabrication.

Step 12: The number of admitted students that accepted increased so the overall goal was realized. And while it was relatively simple to do an internal post-mortem of the project and work-flow, it proved more difficult than anticipated to determine the role the yield piece had in the increase.

Steps for this project: