Case Study: SAT®

Project:

• Design two flash banner campaigns: one aimed at high school students and the second for parents.

Objective:

• Create original concept, storyboard animation for client approval, and develop finished ads using strict guidelines for Google and Yahoo.

At the start of the 2009 academic year, College Board launched campaigns to promote their online study course and study guide to all prospective students. One campaign was targeted at high school students and the other was aimed at the parents of high schoolers.

The banners speaking to teenagers were designed as a high school locker to draw interaction with a combination lock. The idea was to engage teenagers with familiar scenery, a high school locker combination, and challenge them with an interactive game to reveal the message. This appealed to the gaming culture of today’s youth.

The banners geared towards the parents appeal to their concerns of preparing their children for college. The message was to sell the effectiveness of the SAT programs using a before and after storyline.  I chose photographs of stressed out kids in the start of the ad. Once the answer to their fears is resolved in the animation, the teenagers become confident and relieved.    

As the lead designer, I was involved from the conceptual stages. I created storyboards that mapped out the animation. Upon client approval, I developed the banners while meeting strict standards for both Google and Yahoo.