Building New Relationships

          This was a very exciting project to work on with McMaster University's Student Recruitment Office. We created a custom video congratulating students on their acceptance to McMaster University. The video was sent to every successful undergraduate applicant from March to May 2018, individually customized with their first and last name. By working VidYard, the company responsible for the implementation of the names within the videos, we were able to create a unique recruitment strategy that would successfully convert more university applicants into McMaster University students.

GOALS:

• Tell an emotional and impactful story
  

• Establish a personal connection between the prospective student and the university
  

• Be unique amongst other post-secondary institutions
  

• Increase the number of converted applicants to the university

Pre-Production

Having worked previously in the Recruitment Office (both as a student and a grad), I have a solid understanding of what sells McMaster University as a top choice for applicants. The biggest factors are the gorgeous campus and the energized and inclusive student community. So let the brainstorming begin!

I worked collaboratively with the office to nail down a concept that fit within the budget and timeline. We wanted something that created an emotional connection with an audience that has likely never set foot on the campus and might not know much about the school at all. There were tons of ideas generated during this process, but the one we decided on was a letter to your future self. We wrote a letter from the perspective of a first year student writing to themselves on their graduation day. We could tell a story, talk about life at university, and create an emotional connection with an audience.

Once this concept was approved and we wrote a letter, it was my job to create the shot list and plan out what was needed to tell the story visually. I had access to a database of old footage, which was awesome, but I also needed to figure out what was missing. I also had to decide where the student’s name would appear in the video. It took a bit of time and validating ideas with VidYard’s technical requirements, but eventually we settled on a plan that would create a strong recruitment video.

Production

Shooting video went smoothly. It was actually a relatively unremarkable process. I called in a couple favours with friends to be actors for the video, and the Recruitment Office spoke with the Residence team to get us access to a residence room, and that was that. I made sure to shoot everything on my shot list, plus a bunch more once we got into the space itself. The little detail shots (like a poster on the wall or a ball cap on the shelf) can really add to the overall feel of a video.

The voiceover, on the other hand, proved challenging. Finding the person with the right voice was hard. Some people are better speakers than others, some are too fast or too slow, and some just don’t have the right tone. This process took a long time, but in the end we landed on voices that told the story appropriately.

Editing & Submission

Finally it’s time for the editing process. This is where it all comes together. It’s time to execute on the plan I made back in the pre-production stage. I assembled the shots in the order that was planned, and then go through a few iterations to narrow it down. The initial plan isn’t always exactly how it ends up. To be honest, it’s almost never followed exactly, but it does provide a solid starting point. The voiceover took a while to narrow down, but once it was complete we had a complete project that was ready for submission. I followed the guidelines on VidYard’s site, and made sure the Recruitment Office had everything they needed from me to run their campaign successfully.

According to sources at VidYard, this video is one of their best performing campaigns they’ve run. If I get more specific information I’ll share it here, but for now, knowing that this campaign was a success feels good. I believe a strong focus on storytelling and planning made an impactful video. Unfortunately I can not share it publicly as it is still being used in 2019, but you can see a few screenshots from the video throughout this post. Everywhere that you see “First” is a piece of text that would be populated with an applicant’s first name.