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With the year almost at a close we wanted to do a quick roundup of what we thought were 10 of the most creative and inventive higher education digital marketing campaigns of 2014. It’s hard to believe that we only launched our blog in April of this year; since then we’ve been inspired by a whole host of truly innovative marketing campaigns from colleges and universities all over the world.
This week we wanted to highlight 10 of our favorite campaigns from the past 12 months; some of which have already been featured on the TERMINALFOUR blog and some which slipped through the cracks. We will be unveiling the second half of our winners on Friday but for now, sit back and enjoy the first five of our digital marketing all-stars:
1. Chico State’s Year in Review
We wanted to include this, despite the fact that it’s not really technically a campaign but rather an infographic. However, it’s so timely we couldn’t bring ourselves to exclude it. A post or campaign that looks back on the highlights of the year on social media is not only a great way to give yourself a well earned pat on the back, it’s also a really great way to tie all the year’s highlights together in one neat (and very shareable) package!
2. Nuts about Keele
We went nuts for this cute marketing campaign earlier this year! Keele University found that they struggling to generate interest and awareness about their university using traditional marketing methods so they decided to do something a little different to promote their campus. Keele’s digital campaign is based around the natural beauty of the university’s campus which is home to tens of thousands of grey squirrels. The campaign incorporated a video of dancing squirrels which received thousands of views on YouTube and an accompanying #NutsAboutKeele campaign which encouraged students, alumni and faculty members to have their say about why they love Keele University. The campaign proved enormously successful with students, prospective students and to date has engaged more than 100,000 users across social media sites.
3. Arkansas Tech University: Top 100 photos of Spring
We loved the sheer simplicity of this campaign proving that you don’t always need fresh content for a campaign to be successful and creative. We love the idea of creating a campaign that highlights memorable moments from the past season.
4. Aston University’s Clearing Campaign
We are always consistently amazed by just how creative universities and colleges in the UK get when it comes to clearing campaigns. They are consistently of incredibly high quality year after year. We posted a blog in August featuring some of our favorite clearing campaigns and we just want to give a special mention to Aston University’s unique Vine campaign…we love it!
5. Vassar’s Halloween Homepage takeover
We couldn’t not include Vassar College’s spectacularly spooky Halloween homepage takeover. It’s a triumph of higher education marketing ingenuity every October 31st. It’s creative and utterly original proving that every once in a while a ‘just for fun campaign can go a long way when it comes to positively reinforcing your university or college’s brand. While we’re on the subject of holidays, next week we will be spreading some higher education holiday cheer here on the blog, so if your university or college would like to be featured, just leave a comment below or email us at marketing[at]terminalfour.com
The concluding part of this blog will be live on Friday so don’t forget to stop back and check out the remaining 5 of our digital marketing superstars of 2014!