As one of the largest comprehensive universities in the United States, California State University Northridge has a lot to offer prospective students, including online degrees. But how could CSUN differentiate its nonprofit, student-focused and state-funded online program from programs offered by often predatory, for-profit institutions?

The answer was the “Level Up” campaign that Echo-Factory developed with CSUN. The 30-second spots, which aired on streaming television services like Hulu, showed tangible ways in which an online degree from CSUN could help improve viewers’ careers. They also made a clear, powerful distinction between “education for profit, and an education for you.”

The campaign represented a significant departure from CSUN’s more traditional advertising, but the reception was clearly positive, with one of the school’s deans remarking that the campaign was “on target in so many ways.”