Marketing Campaign: Be safe. Be smart. Do your part.

In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic was becoming increasingly widespread across the United States. University campuses from coast to coast responded with campus closures and transitions to primarily online learning to prevent congregation of students, faculty and staff and protect the health of the university and surrounding communities.

American Campus Communities formed a Covid-19 task force to address the pandemic at more than 200 communities across the nation: How can ACC provide communities where students have the academic environment, internet access and speed, and university campus resources they need, while prioritizing the health and wellness of our residents and team amidst a global pandemic?

After much planning and collaboration, American Campus Communities announced its partnership with RB, the makers of Lysol and global leaders in hygiene products in July 2020. The partnership was embodied by a campaign we call Be safe. Be smart. Do your part.

First, ACC teams nationwide introduced cleaning protocols and disinfection stations, as well as touchless features in shared spaces to encourage hygienic practices and safe socialization at all ACC properties nationwide. The ACC team also completed a thorough process of analyzing high-traffic touchpoints and reduced them by adding features including touchless soap dispensers and hand dryers, step-n-pull attachments on doors, disinfectant wipe stations, and touchless hand sanitizing stations. Where touchpoints could not be eliminated, our team installed anti-microbial surface overlays that continuously self-clean high-touch surfaces. Additionally, we overhauled our cleaning protocols and trained our staff on the products and disinfecting methods to use in helping to mitigate pathogens.

From there, it was vital for residents to practice cleanliness and responsible socialization in order for our efforts to be successful. That’s where our Be safe. Be smart. Do your part. social media campaign stepped in.

Starting in July and continuing on to present day, American Campus corporate and all property social media platforms rolled out content encouraging students to wear masks, practice social distancing, utilize the disinfection stations we set up in our communities, wash and sanitize their hands frequently and follow all recommendations set out by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and state and local Covid-19 prevention guidelines. I spearheaded the creation of all social media content, directing social media creatives in photoshoots and writing all copy used in social media captions for both ACC brand accounts and all property social accounts nationwide.

Additionally, with the pressures of succeeding academically, adjusting to online learning and finding new ways to create connections and socialize with peers, we felt it was important to promote the importance of mental health as well as physical health as part of the campaign.

In fall 2020, we built upon the campaign by rolling out a video targeting our student audience and introducing a $5,000 Be safe. Be smart. scholarship.

With the highest student engagement occurring primarily on Instagram, we rolled out this step of the campaign across our corporate and property Instagram accounts with a goal to reignite responsible behavior and commitment to cleanliness at a time when many were fatigued by the ongoing pandemic. We encouraged students to follow our accounts and tag their friends in posts who were “being safe and smart.”

Over the course of the campaign starting in July 2020 and continuing on today, the American Campus corporate Instagram account followers increased over 100%, and campaign posts across corporate and property platforms received thousands of likes and comments on our more than 143,000 published posts related to the campaign. The campaign set out to encourage students nationwide to do their part in protecting the health and wellness of themselves, their families, and their communities, and it was met with overwhelmingly positive engagement over more than six months of content rollout.

At the conclusion of the campaign, our team was excited to award our $5,000 Be safe. Be smart. scholarship to a student in her junior year at the University of Wisconsin, who despite the challenge of succeeding academically amidst a global pandemic, plans to use the scholarship to pursue her dream of attending law school.