Located at Midlands Technical College on its Beltline Campus in Columbia, ROMC opened in 2003 as the only high school of choice in the Richland One School District. While the school maintained consistently high graduation rates year after year, it needed to build broader awareness in the region and increase enrollment following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Under the leadership of Dr. Carla Brabham, ROMC turned to Rhodes Branding in December 2022 to serve as an extension of its marketing team and build a strong enrollment marketing strategy.

The first phase of our partnership focused on improving ROMC’s digital presence and marketing collateral. Our team refined the website’s navigation and user experience, streamlined its search engine results page, and built a library of creative assets through a full-day photo shoot.

We launched the school’s first-ever digital ad campaign to increase registrations for spring information sessions. The four-month campaign generated 1.16 million impressions and 6,500+ clicks, resulting in more than 100 attendees. The campaign led to the highest information session attendance numbers both in person and online and contributed to the largest overall enrollment for the 2023-24 school year. ROMC began the 2023-24 school year with 33 percent more students than the previous year. 

Our partnership with ROMC expanded in 2023-2024 to tackle the school’s next priority in building brand awareness: refining its visual identity. 

The school had historically used an educational crest and a bulldog mascot, but found the two brand marks lacked individual distinctions that accurately represented ROMC’s impact on student success. 

Dr. Brabham and her team sought a bold, daring, modern look that reflected the ambition of Middle College students who choose ROMC for its rigor, and the professionalism the school instills as students strive for college and career aspirations. 

Through in-person creative listening sessions with school leaders, our team developed creative concepts for a unique and modern bulldog logo, and an updated educational crest that includes elements that resonate with the current school community. The crest was also redesigned for use in digital platforms, and a set of brand guidelines was created to guide the school’s application of its new visual identity. 

In the fall of 2023, we facilitated the rollout of ROMC’s visual identity across digital and print, including the production of a logo reveal video for use on the school’s social media platforms, updating the Middle College’s website with new assets, and creating branded promotional items and spirit wear.