Creative Video Marketing Ideas for Colleges & Universities

November 21, 2021
Contents

With the growing necessity and progress of advertising videos, it's become a huge concern for the universities and colleges to accumulate the attention of its audience. With the internet all the time, video marketing has proved itself as one of the most viable ways of promotion with unbelievable and rewarding results.

Video marketing strategy helps colleges to showcase the facilities, terms and conditions and also that they are going to serve the students and the faculty members, offering a great satisfaction to the parents.


The advantages of using video ads is becoming more and more well placed with the increase of modernity. The convenience and versatility of the educational institutions makes them an asset to the students , teachers and parents.


Universities and colleges are widely spreading their video ads to ventilate their big brands through youtube and other social media platforms too. The service is almost free or inexpensive. In this article we will talk about everything you need to know about college advertisements but first let's start with the benefits of college advertisements.

Advantages of College Advertisements


Benefits acquired by the institutions can be listed below:

  • Great potential to improve marketing and communications. Watching an ultimate success story has always made an impact on the mind of the viewers.
  • More flexible faculty and staff training. It becomes easy to reach out to the worthy ones who are more flexible and dedicated to the offerings and facilities.
  • Ability to ventilate campus events and other co-curriculums. With an ever changing world, there is a lot of competition arising not only in the educational sector but also in the other curriculum sectors too.
  • Ability to increase offerings. One can record the reactions and can work on it to excel the growth and ultimately succeed.


Some other beneficial tips are

  • Digital videos can be integrated into your institutions learning management system ( LMS)
  • Increasing campus accessibility through video commercials, creating an attitude of positive public relations.
  • The use of videos in education shows a high Return On Investment (ROI)


To achieve the necessary target goal, commercials should be appealing, relevant, catchy and memorable . Music, script, filming style and originality are some of the major criterias one should have to get good audience attention.


Many colleges and universities want to air televised college sports events commercials in a particular advertising slot time which is either free or with inexpensive advertising facilities. But, it is very rare to find attractive and worth watching commercials mainly due to 2 reasons:


  • If a university or college's commercial video is not given a proper broadcast air time, then the institution becomes hesitant to spend a lot of effort on the commercial to be aired.
  • Deviating from the norm was a challenging task for most of the commercials aired by the universities , that's why they mostly use similar types of commercials only.


Since there is a lot of use of the internet, educational institutions have more space and affordable free platforms to reach students to broadcast ads and promotional videos which have more impact on society. Both factors have helped create attractive and genuine commercials.


Supporting Examples of marketing videos:

Some of the best college commercials can be listed below:

Texas christian university

Established in the year of 1873 and possessing a large campus of around 272 acres, TCU is affiliated by the disciples of Christ and formed by 8 colleges and schools.


The awkwardness of its commercial video makes it memorable . A tone of cheap info- commercial, and a humorous touch makes it a great example with a tight budget . The video is a best example that a well-planned video can be money and effective at a time.

Southern Illinois university:

The university was established in the year of 1869, a public university which enrolls students from almost every state in the USA and takes students from more than 100 countries.


The video focuses on its library, traditional educational values, multiculturalism and so on. It has been wonderfully structured with colour tone and powerful music which makes it look like a motivational video. In short, it accomplishes a lot on display SIU values, it's enormous facilities and other benefits of further education and inspiring viewers by giving a CTA (Call To Action) implying a strong message.


University of Phoenix

This is one of those college commercials which is just for one minute but the video is surely going to make you cry. It shows how a mother finds her wings after she takes up a course in the university. This teaches her "how to fly". The wonderfully crafted cinematic ad establishes the college as a brand and the style of the video shows how you can show the world it is never too late to fly.


Duke University

Just in 30 seconds this ad does the magic. Important decisions like joining college require strong reasons to be joining the same. This is what the commercial from Duke University does. with 15 Nobel laureates and 3 Turing Award winners these achievements speak for itself. The usage of imperative verbs and the less is more approach is the video marketing strategy for this commercial. The application form at the end of the video  is interesting and becomes a must watch.


Western Sydney University

The marketing video of Western Sydney university features Deng Adult's Story who was a Sudanese child soldier. When he came to Australia at the age of 14 as a refugee he taught himself how to talk in English and took up the law degree in the university. This was one of the most important decisions in his life. The short video is very emotive and inspiring. The video marketing campaign was a success as it had a very good message and story that served as an inspiration for many.


University of Michigan

Strong music, convincing writing and eye catching imagery are what make this ad interesting. This is really good for marketing as it is the typical college commercial and is good to watch. This catchy, powerful and uplifting is surely going to catch the attention of prospective students. University commercials like these require thorough planning to convey a clear message.


Columbia University

This ad is an excellent example of story telling through marketing videos. Columbia University alumni, Herman Wouk and Brian Dennehy lend voiceovers to this beautifully crafted ad. While one of them is a Pulitzer Prize winner, the other is an actor. Time lapse and hyper lapse have given a new energy to the video and also help in reminding people about the beauty of California. They talk about their individual experiences on their alma mater and thus gives a whole sense of purpose to the video.


University of Alabama

This concise, catchy and sophisticated video delivers a clear cut message of how this university is a brand in itself. It provides an idea of how students from the institution get great roles in companies and their success in the corporate sector. They stand out from the rest by conveying a clear message which features corporate workers.




Most appropriate ideas of video marketing that can be used now and in near future.


Dare to do :

Even if it sounds a little absurd and most of the heads of institutions sign off while talking about video ads. This should be one of the most important criterias to reach out to the public . One forum should be confident enough to form a structured video unapologetically to create public attention.

Visualise the achievements of the sparkling individuals:

A narrator's story makes a lot of difference. The school students who passed out from the university and are now working with a lot of enthusiasm can be a great video idea. This is what attracts the people more towards the colleges and universities , making them a brand. Highlight their achievements and create a inspirational video.

Micro target students:

A video can help target students who are enthusiastic about the future. For instance, each former student can narrate their own experience and each prospective student can put his view on behalf of college or university so as to promote the reputation and make it more viral in social media like facebook, and other platforms where ads are published. It's become easier as these platforms take preferences from the related searches. These basically serve as testimonials directly from the students.

Create hustle among students' mind with intriguing storyline:

Most of the colleges include a good storyline in their ads . They film a good storyline suggesting a bright future with wonderful music and characters while some choose to talk about their success story.

Focus on friendship:

College or university life is also about friendship as about excellence. Put some effort on your videos to also focus on growing humanly and building connections. Showcase relatable stories so  prospective students would love to share further attracting more target audience.

Empower students ― make them feel recognised and important

Focus more on the students' goals and prioritise their missions more than your product. This imposes a positive impact on the mind of the viewers. Highlight achievement s of former students who excelled wonderfully after passing out and confidently narrate their life experience after their college experience.

Relate to people's hopes and fears

Talk about all the aspects of viewers which should include distance learning, open university . These introduce realistic, relatable and believable characters to the advertisement. A cinematic representation is always worthy which conveys a message and answers questions too.

Target Influencers

It's equally important to influence not only the prospective students but also their parents, career influencers, and advisors . In the process of decision making , the views of these people play a very vital role. If you are missing their attention then you are truly missing a huge trick. They are the person who helps to convey and ventilate the whole clear message of your university or college. Making influencers a part of your campaign can give a huge impetus to your commercial.

Share an alternative view

The alternative viewpoint focuses on the values of your college or university. For instance, a cinematic representation of a teacher's life including an emotive view, which collides with nostalgia, warmth and empathy can trigger the same feelings within individuals watching it. This will make them feel connected and can understand the position of other people in the college.

Focus to be unique

The most unusual things take up the most space in the human mind. Take a good look at what you acquire in your campus which makes you different and put it on your ad . By putting out what you really are and what makes you different than the rest will build up a positive image of yours in the market. This in turn will work for your good by giving you good returns. So, staying true is always important.

Now, if you have decided to stay true and create an original promotional video for your institution, then go ahead and explore our promo video maker to create the best promo videos. Make it engaging and up to date with recent data so that you stand out from the others. You do not need any prior editing experience to do this, our interface is very easy to use. It will be fun for you to create something on your own as you like it to be. Choose a template of your choice and customise it your way.

Written By
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