Extreme Assembly Required: Branding the ‘MIT of Trade Schools’

IYRS is a world-renowned craftsmanship school based in Rhode Island, with campuses in Bristol and Newport. They are most well-known for their boat building and restoration program, whose reputation creates a wait list for enrollment year after year.

The Problem

Despite achieving full enrollment for their boat building programs, IYRS often struggled to fill classes in their other stellar programs, such as composite technology. The school wanted to rebrand itself and re-educate the public in order to be seen as more than a boating school. They wanted to be “the MIT of trade schools.”

The Solution

“The MIT of trade schools” is a pretty tall order for any ad agency, but fortunately for us, we had a great jumping off point when it came to IYRS’ existing photography. The visuals were compelling — modern, dynamic, active — and we wanted to create a campaign around these assets that was equally as compelling. Enter “Extreme Assembly Required.”

The tagline “Extreme Assembly Required” put the focus more on IYRS’ overall commitment to craftsmanship and quality and less on boat-related building, and it became the impetus for a series of radio ads, billboards, bus wraps, paid social lead generation campaigns, print collateral, display, eBooks, and newspaper ads, all targeting the Rhode Island area. Together, these materials resulted in a flood of qualified leads, and these leads became successfully matriculated students.