When we were asked to present two examples of good new media experiences, I immediately placed the Vancouver Film School at the top of that list. I had the privilege of hearing Stephen Webster, Director of Marketing at VFS describe how he was challenged to spearhead an international marketing campaign, that was designed to put VFS on the map as a world renowned school. Today...
"VFS is not just a place where people come to make movies, but rather a place where the ideas, stories, and talent for film making originate. VFS plays a central role in Vancouver's creative development, providing a constant stream to North America's third largest television, animation, design, and video game production centre."
How did VFS come to make that statement? First, they recognized that traditional strategic marketing doesn't work. It just isn't responsive enough, and particularly so when you're dealing with 13 different products, 13 different markets, 13 different demographics, and 13 different psychographics. They took a different approach that meant first creating a handshake with a new customer, second, nurturing and growing the community, and lastly, creating opportunities for these communities to connect to one another, while establishing a unified brand focused not only on the skills, the education, but more importantly on a key differentiating factor, the experience at VFS (student work and portfolios).
Create the First Handshake: Show-off the variety of student work and launch the first VFS You Tube Scholarship Competition and then let the work speak for itself.
Peace of Mind Video
Scholarship Video
The Winner
The goal was to make the community involvement as large as possible, have a long-term tie in to the VFS brand, and because the You Tube community chose the winner, they had to be willing to accept any of the winners. The Theme of the Scholarship Competition was, What Matters to You, It's all about You".
Nurture & Grow the Community and allow them to Connect:
Connect and have a presence on "many" social networks (VFS blog, You Tube, Twitter, the list is endless)
Live by one guiding principle monitor all the feedback and comments and "Respond to Everything" with an authentic voice
To help add more fuel to the engine, Google and You Tube caught wind of the campaign and kicked in $500,000 in advertising, promotional, and custom applications.
The outcome
* Demand for the scholarship competition was and still is huge
* 2008 saw the largest intake of students in 22 years of which 50% are international students
* The calibre of candidates attending VFS has improved by leaps and bounds
* Created huge brand awareness
* Considered the # 1 School Channel on You Tube
* Get over 20,000 visits a day of which 94% are new visitors
* Recruiters approaching VFS and students for talent
* The story continues with the students. They are provided with tools to embed their work onto their blogs, websites, and you tube channels THE MORE PEOPLE SEE THE WORK, THE MORE THEY JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
The process today
* Post a video to Youtube every day of the week& make regular blog & twitter posts.
* Monitor the feedback and comments
* Respond in an authentic voice (no sales jargon)
Students Wreaking Havoc
No comments:
Post a Comment