The ROI just keeps on coming!
The senior viewbook is the single most important Admissions piece at any higher ed institution. It is sent out to tens of thousands of high school seniors in hopes that it will generate interest in the college or university and lead to a site visit. Saint Mary's had not updated it's senior viewbook in four years! When I came on board in March of 2017, I began to do intensive, and strategic research to determine what was needed to freshen our Senior viewbook. I met with our Admission team, talked with alumni and current students and looked at A LOT of senior viewbooks. What struck me was how they all looked the same. All said the same things and lacked any sort of engagement. I worked closely with our Director of Strategic Marketing and we poured over data. Our collaborative efforts produced this absolute sic senior viewbook! It's bold, fresh, cool, diverse and most importantly it utilizes techniques for peer-to-peer engagement. Trust me, seniors in high school don't care what us adults think. They see right through all our marketing. What they want is to hear from their peers. We utilized Augmented Reality throughout the piece. When a senior downloads the free Layar app, they simply scan the images marked with the Layar logo and instantly see a video or snapchat videos from Saint Mary's students.
The book mailed out July 6 and the results of this one-of-a kind senior viewbook was an increase in July visits to Saint Mary's of 86 students compared to July of 2017, and a 36% increase in traffic to the VISIT page of our website! Best of all, the Admission team told us that in July alone, 5 of those visiting students came with their viewbook in hand and said that they scheduled their visit as a direct result of the viewbook! Trust me, this kind of viewbook is not being done anywhere in higher ed....yet ;) By next year, everyone will be copying Saint Mary's, but I'll be on to the next thing already.
Highlights of the book include:
Soft touch flood varnish with strategic spot hits of high gloss UV on the cover, back cover and envelope.
Snapchat code directing students to the Visit page of our website.
Augmented Reality-via the free Layar app, students scan photos designated with the Layar logo and instantly see a Saint Mary's produced video or a snapchat video.
Tiered guts that feature foldouts. The tiers allow for easy and immediate recognition of categories. The foldouts increase engagement and allow for more content.
Content is all quick hit to appeal to the short attention span of our younger audience. Copy is short and to the point and written to a student, not an adult. Infographic style design appeals to our audience who are used to mobile and video games.
A tipped in sticker sheet on the inside back cover. The 4 stickers at the top are on trend for students as they stick them to their laptops and water bottles. The stickers are AR and when scanned, they see a compilation of all our student led Snapchat videos. With our theme being Journey, these stickers literally travel with the students.
Price per book (with a 4 color envelope that mirrored the cover) came in around $1.50! The cost per book of the previous 4 years was close to $4. We saved about $2.50 per book!
I can already tell you want one of these. Well, there is a way. Call or email the admission team at Saint Mary's and schedule your visit and go take a tour of our awesome campus. And tell the Admission team I said you could have a senior viewbook ;)
