Electronic Media: Recruitment Features

General Observations

With the growing use of video on Web sites, plus continued use in other communications with prospective students, the admissions video category continued to be quite competitive again this year. The judges were generally pleased with the overall quality of the productions entered. However, they also noted that – while solid – almost none broke any new ground in reaching this key constituency.

An encouraging sign this year were fewer entries that exhibited a “throw money at the communications challenge” approach. Almost every year, the judges have passed over at least a recruitment entry or two costing more than $100,000 but demonstrating little creativity, sensitivity, and focus, and have given the awards to more ambitious and innovative productions costing maybe a third as much. Not so this year. “We applaud the campuses for wise use of funds,” one judge said – and that is especially true of the three productions recognized with awards this year.

Our nominee for the most annoying video production fad this year is use of a fake hand-held-camera approach to convey a feel of spontaneity and honesty. It’s a bogus device as subtle as a neon sign, especially when combined (as it was in one entry) with a contrived “student-produced” concept. If you can’t be honest, pretending to be honest isn’t an effective fallback position.

The judges also cited the Gold Medal Reconstructionist Rabbinical College production for special accolades. “Most recruitment videos focus on the social aspects of the institution,” said one judge, “while the rabbinical video focuses on inner meaning.” That is powerful, yet it’s the elephant in the college recruitment room that is ignored in most videos. What college or university will have the self-assurance and courage to use their admissions video to talk about what happens inside the person attending their institution? This Gold Medal winner provides a good model for doing that.

Comments on Winning Entries

Gold Medals

Fountain Valley School of Colorado – “Imagine More”

• Fountain Valley, in its recruitment video, has done a common thing uncommonly well. The classic recruitment video uses those on campus to tell the story aurally, while the visuals take the viewer inside the institution. This video is unabashedly built on that model, but the interviewees’ comments are unusually original – and are kept brief to allow the inclusion of a wealth of voices.
  Creative and technically solid videography captures the spirit of the campus, its students and its faculty. The overall package simply works, and viewers comes away with the feeling that in ten minutes they truly have seen inside a very special place, filled with very special people.

Reconstructionist Rabbinical College – Recruitment Video

• This beautifully structured and produced video takes the viewer inside a very special world: the purpose and the people of a Reconstructionist rabbinical college. The story is told through sometimes painfully personal stories, including the struggles of a profoundly deaf student who is pursuing his dream of becoming a rabbi. More important than recounting the “nuts and bolts” of their educational path, those interviewed spend time talking about the “why” of what they are doing, and their deeply felt passion about that path they have chosen.
  Technically, the production is stellar. Scenes and interviewees are beautifully lit and photographed, well-chosen music enhances the visual effect, and editing is smooth and unobtrusive.
  This is a gem of a video. While it may be unlike any college video most of us have seen, the underlying message is applicable to all recruitment videos: that we should aspire to tell our institution’s story with as much passion and clarity as does the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Silver Medal

California State University, San Bernardino – “Come Here, Go Anywhere”

• This fast-paced video is a virtual course in applied marketing. Its development started with intensive research, and a thoughtful, targeted approach to the intended audience – high school juniors and seniors. The same kind of research and planning was applied to selecting the students to be featured in the production, and early edits of the video were tested with a number of audiences, then adjustments were made in light of their reaction. For anyone intending to apply solid marketing principles to their recruitment video, reading the abstract for this production is a must.
  The production itself goes beyond the typical student comment/campus scenes approach in its steadfast focus on the key selling points – even reinforcing those points on the screen through brief supers of each, and ending with a crawl of all majors offered. (Then those points are reinforced one more time on the well-designed sleeve that holds the DVD.) While the planning is dispassionate and methodical, the resulting video is actually fun to watch, and far more informative about the university than many recruitment videos. This is marketing that works.