Experiential

Not Another Webinar

Welcome Home was the theme for our admitted student events the last time we had them in person. We wanted students to experience NYU not just as a college, but as their “home” for future years. And data told us that trepidation about NYC itself is one of the reasons students choose to enroll at our competitor institutions, so we wanted to take that head on. NYU is as much home as a pastoral college campus where, as a professor once told me, students “can climb a trees and read Beowulf.” That is not us. Our founding documents describe NYU as in-and-of the city.

And then 2020 happened. You know. Everything went virtual. And how do you create a branded experience when attendees are a zillion miles apart, logged in to Zoom and also probably Roblox?

Well, step one is put on a good show. Our events team booked live performances, our technical team created frictionless ways to navigate our sessions online. We left open the chat function to create a more communal experience – we close it to signal a big event. We run a play list and even a queuing presentation at the start of the event. No stone in unturned, and NYU – one of the top theater, film, and television schools in the world – does not put on just another webinar.

But the question that had me sweating was….will it create conversions? We craft our programming based on data about the impact of each unique element of the experience. Now we had more data than ever, but my specific charge in the pandemic years was to produce a digital event that replicated the experience of literally flying students from around the world to Abu Dhabi to experience our campus and the city first hand. Yikes.

Well, we did it. Through pre-recorded video, daily touchpoints throughout the multi-day event, careful timezone planning, dynamic programming, and a no-frills, low cost, easy to use platform, our virtual events saw conversion rates equal to those that were in person. Even better, we were getting feedback on the content and the format in real time and could adjust to meet the needs of our audiences.