Griffith University worked with content marketing agency King Content to broadcast its 2016 Open Day live to an online audience in Australia and overseas.
In terms of what this case study shows that people may not already know, King Content says it demonstrates that companies and institutions are providing additional avenues for their target audience to consume their content.
“Griffith University catered for students who couldn't physically attend," says native and social account manager and strategist at King Content, Elysia Raphael.
"They knew that their target audience would be on this platform and leveraged a new feature available via Facebook to execute it. We are unaware of any other Australian universities who have successfully rolled out a real-time experience for an Open Day. Also, live video is very powerful compared to pre-recorded and drives 3x more engagement."
The Challenge
King Content was asked to put together a social campaign that would capture Griffith University’s millennial audience given their appetite for on-demand content and real-time experiences.
The Solution
In an age of international enrolments, global families and hectic schedules, bringing the Open Day experience online helped students and parents view the potential of Griffith University from anywhere and on any device. Throughout the day, Griffith worked with King Content to create seven Facebook Live streams, attracting 57,000 views, and sent multiple Snapchats from two separate campuses, achieving several hundred views each time. The team also worked to promote the live event activity via other social channels, including Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
In terms of what was actually involved in setting it up, Raphael says from planning to production to media budgets, it’s not too dissimilar to TV.
“You need to treat it seriously, have a strategy and understand that even off-the-cuff content needs to be planned,” she says.
She added that things to be included are production bibles, strategic recommendations, how-tos and simple login instructions, talent casting, run sheets, on-location 4G/Wi-Fi testing, cue cards, more checklists, production equipment, such as steadicams, rehearsals, social media and production crew.
“We had a total of seven people on the ground at Griffith. Sounds excessive, right? Well, consider there was the host, producer, cam crew and assistant, someone checking adequate 4G signals (and in some cases Wi-Fi), moderator feeding back the Facebook audience’s questions to our producer, community manager (moderating responses that streamed in) and paid support – plus the Snapchat team. There was definitely a need to wear multiple hats at once."
King Content would not be drawn on the cost of the venture.
The Results
In terms of the overall ROI and measuring effectiveness, Raphael says this was solely a brand awareness campaign.
- Total campaign impressions: 1.85 million
- Facebook overall impressions: 1,632,612
- Facebook total engagements: 8,951
- Facebook likes increased by more than 1,000
- 21,114 total minutes watched
- Instagram: 2,678 likes and comments
- LinkedIn: 23,254 impressions and up to 26 interactions per post
Griffith University marketing and communications director Dean Gould says the campaign “exceeded” all expectations.
“With more than 18,000 attending the Open Day in person, these live-streamed events allowed us to reach an outstanding number of potential future students in real-time. We were able to answer questions as they were asked and confirm our position as an innovative, pioneering university," he says.
King Content's strategic direction provided Griffith with a way to effectively communicate with audiences on Snapchat and Facebook Live. It says these relatively new social channels delivered direct, unfiltered messaging valued by younger people who are often tired of traditional marketing messages.
“Understanding the market and target audience is imperative to the success of any campaign," Raphael says.
"This demographic wants raw, authentic, uncut content, and that's what we aimed to achieve for the Open Day project. We're going to see a lot more marketers shift their campaign focus to the likes of Snapchat, Facebook Live and Instagram Stories."
Did you see our previous case studies?
Case study: VivaKi and 20th Century Fox
Case Study: Facebook’s impact on Country Road in-store
Personalised cross-platform retargeting sees 200%.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.