By Lexie V. Owen | Echo
Over the month of February, Taylor's University Marketing implemented a microsite (an individual web page to complement an offline activity) called TU440 as an appealing way to introduce prospective students to Taylor life.
TU440 uses entertaining video shorts to engage students in a way that a postcard can't. The initiative's slogan and philosophy is "The four year experience. The forty year effect."
The Marketing Department, along with the social media company BlueFuego, designed TU440 to inspire prospective students to learn more about campus culture.
"We thought this would be a really interesting way of engaging prospective students who have been accepted and are interested in learning a little bit more in a casual way and messaging to them in a unique way," said Marketing Coordinator Christa Siegelin. "This helps them understand the differences between Taylor and other institutions."
The TU440 microsite releases a new 40- to 100-second video at 4:40 p.m. every day. Each video reveals something unique about Taylor. "Taylor Acronyms" and "How to Pick a Silent Night Outfit" are particular favorites.
"The whole idea was to give information to prospective students that's unique to them in who they are and where they are in their process," said Ben Wehling, executive director of marketing. "It's also to help them take the next step in the process, to keep them engaged with Taylor and excited about the idea of Taylor."
Alumni profiles accompanying each video show prospective students how Taylor grads are impacting the world.
"Taylor does value what happens in the life of a student during their four year experience, but we also know that these shouldn't be the best four years of your life," Wehling said. "They should be great, but you're being prepared for something greater in the next 40 years after you graduate where you're going to have impact."
Prospective students can fill out forms for giveaways and prizes advertised on the website. A $440 scholarship will be given away as a grand prize at the end of the month. Students could enter to win the scholarship each day.
While only prospective students can win the prizes, University Marketing recently discovered that current students enjoy the videos as well.
"It is really fun that Taylor students are loving this, too, and that is a testimonial that what we're showing is actually the product that students are living right now," Siegelin said. "For us, we don't consider it marketing success if we sell the wrong product. Marketing success is for prospective students to understand truly who we are because that's why they come and that's why they stay."
To view University Marketing's videos, go to tu440.taylor.edu. The final video debuts today.
