When the Message Misses: How EFM Helped a National Equity Organization Rewrite the Rules and Reach Gen Z
Executive Summary
In 2020, a leading national nonprofit found itself in crisis. Tasked with enrolling thousands of diverse first-year college students into a groundbreaking career program, its usual recruitment methods fell flat just as COVID emptied campuses and upended communication norms.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever worked with an agency more attuned to or adaptable to our organizational needs.”
Electric Fork Media stepped in not to rebuild the marketing funnel, but to rewire its messaging and tactics. We didn’t reinvent the wheel; we made the wheel roll on new terrain. By adapting language, channels, and senders to match the moment and audience, we helped Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) rescue a flagship initiative, protect a multimillion-dollar grant, and set a new standard for inclusive engagement.
The results were immediate and lasting. The changes we implemented during a crisis remain the organization’s best practices today.
Introduction: A Promising Program in Peril
MLT is a national organization with a bold mission: to launch high-achieving individuals from underrepresented communities into the highest tiers of business and leadership. Over the years, they’ve partnered with giants like Google, Chase Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, and other Fortune 500s to make good on that mission.
In 2019, MLT received a $20 million grant to pilot a new initiative Turn Pro, a program designed to support young students as they transition from high school to college and eventually into elite careers. But, there was a catch. Continued funding depended on reaching specific enrollment benchmarks. No students, no program.
Turn Pro was scheduled to launch in mid-2020. You can probably guess what happened next.
The Problem: A Strategy Built for a World That Vanished
MLT had a tried-and-true recruitment machine. Their teams would visit campuses, host in-person seminars, partner with professors, and run email, display, and event campaigns. That model worked, until it didn’t.
As COVID hit, students went home. Campuses emptied. Mailboxes collected dust. A first-year college cohort, primarily comprising Gen Z students of color, vanished into a digital ether.
MLT continued to push: emails, social media posts, and seminars (now held over Zoom). But the students didn’t engage. People weren’t attending virtual events. Emails went unopened. Social media posts were ignored. And Turn Pro, once promising, looked like it might stall before it started.
The Diagnosis: The Medium Was Wrong, But the Message Was Worse
“Working with the EFM team was wonderful. For every marketing problem we encountered (and, as this was a brand new program, we encountered many), the EFM team found a way to transform those problems into opportunities.”
At Electric Fork Media, we don’t believe in throwing everything out and starting over. Our first step was to audit the process, including the content and platforms being used, and assess its performance.
The bones were good. The strategy had structure. However, the execution, particularly the creative aspect, wasn’t tailored for the audience.
MLT’s messaging had been created for Millennials. Its tone and vocabulary were built for a college environment. But Turn Pro was targeting a new generation and a new kind of student: high school graduates, home from their dorms, adrift during a once-in-a-generation disruption. They hadn’t even learned how to "do college" yet. They were scared, skeptical, and unmoored. And the formal, institution-speak didn’t land.
It wasn’t that the message was bad. It was that the students didn’t see themselves in it.
The Solution: Find the Audience. Then Speak Their Language.
We didn’t just tweak the copy; we completely revamped it. We started by listening. We worked with Gen Z consultants, young people from the same demographic MLT hoped to reach. Their feedback was blunt: the copy felt out of touch. The visuals were stiff. The CTA buttons might as well have said, “Click Here to Be Bored.” So we rebuilt it. All of it.
Phase 1: Rewrite the Digital Playbook
We started with digital ads because, unlike postcards or emails, we could test them instantly. We replaced stock phrases with Gen Z-verified language. Swapped out earnest slogans for messages that felt real. Then, we monitored the metrics in real-time. The results were immediate. Clickthrough rates rose. Cost-per-click dropped. Students were signing up.
Phase 2: Meet Them Where They Listen
Next came email. Not just rewriting the text, but rethinking the sender. Originally, emails came from MLT, a name most students had never heard. While during a normal year they’d be exposed to the organization through friends and on-campus events, this year it was like receiving a spam email. So, we worked with MLT’s university partners to send emails from professors and trusted partners instead. Open rates surged.
Phase 3: Engage the Decision-Makers Behind the Scenes
Finally, we tackled the print mailers. These were expensive and slow, so we saved them for last. But we did two key things:
Changed the sender: The mail originated from the student’s university, not MLT, using the same logic as the emails.
Changed the recipient: Instead of sending mailers to students, we sent them to parents.
Why? During the COVID-19 pandemic, we didn’t know where students were, but we could usually find their parents. And when a parent sees a mailer about a program that could land their kid a job at Google? They bring it up over dinner. This wasn’t just marketing; it was leveraging the family structure as a means to create opportunities.
Results: A Crisis Strategy That Became a Best Practice
Gen Z-specific creative and situation-specific methods catapulted application completions to new heights. EFM continued to conduct constant testing and iteration, and the rate of completed applications increased, rising by 250% from the first six months post-creative refresh to the last six months. After twelve months of partnering with EFM, MLT met and then exceeded its goal of 2,000 applicants.
Following a structured, audit-first, test-driven strategy, Electric Fork Media identified the necessary changes to reflect the audience and the moment. We helped Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) rescue a valued initiative, protect a multimillion-dollar grant, and set a new standard for inclusive engagement. Organizations often need a trusted partner to provide a new perspective and test new strategies. With an iterative process that worked hand in hand wth our partner’s goals, we were proud to turn a key program into a success.
If your organization is seeking to refine its strategy for discovering new audiences in innovative ways, this story is for you. Because we’ve been there, and we’re ready to help.