Advertising Online Webinar/Livestream
Integrated online videos and webinar content marketing fosters university cultural proficiency with diversity campaign
SITUATION
A national health sciences university was launching a diversity initiative to propel the University’s deep commitment to cultural proficiency among students, faculty, and staff. An integrated framework of communications was needed to create high quality recruitment content through an online video webinar and livestream series entitled “Getting There.” Because these online webinars needed to be high quality and produced in various locations, not to mention set up and operated by the client teams, the latest and most portable, user-friendly equipment, plus all the training, was provided by the top-rated video production team at FabCom, an integrated strategic marketing agency in Phoenix, Arizona.
The integrated marketing agency – headquartered in Scottsdale with offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Oahu – was engaged to coordinate all aspects of each production, providing the business strategy, creative solutions, technology, and training that defined the equipment and the operations manual/webinar playbook. Among the advantages of having FabCom’s video production team as a trusted part of any client team is the fact that they are continually researching and testing the most current technology in the market to provide the advanced equipment needed to meet individual client needs.
In this particular case, the video equipment was ordered for the webinars. Shortly after it arrived, new enhancements in the market became available. FabCom was able to pivot and exchange the equipment for the latest model to ensure that the highest quality, flexibility, and usability could be maintained.
STRATEGY
Create the framework through authentic and changing content to propel the University’s diversity initiative and deep commitment to cultural proficiency among students, faculty, and staff. Provide an integrated framework of communications from creating awareness in hard-to-reach communities to demonstrating the clear pathway to supporting future students in “Getting There.” Prepare current students to embrace society’s diversity that’s cultivated by sharing the journey of accomplishment with those within their cohort, peer group, and community who’ve achieved the goal.
The strategy included:
- Community outreach efforts
- Admissions officers with a diversity focus
- On-campus diversity recruitment efforts
- Social media outreach
- Minority conscious scholarships
- Economic-conscious scholarships
- Holistic admissions process
- Exhibits at national meetings and conferences that focus on underrepresented groups
- Summer exposure and enrichment programs focused on underrepresented groups
Strategic messaging and subsequent campaign legs:
- Self-empowerment… illuminate your pathway.
- We’re here to help and support you in getting there.
- This person did it with us, so can you.
- Diversity means more than hue at [University].
- Go where the light of hope is needed most.
- Become the light of hope you wish to see in the world.
TACTICS
- Compile an operations manual that includes live webinar and live streaming capability.
- Initiate integrated online, print ads, collateral, online video, social media mobile webinar platform, and website communications to increase awareness/communication of the University’s innovative, progressive programs and institutional focus to further embrace diversity and outreach.
- Multicultural branding and communication
- Social media used for multicultural marketing
(YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) - Diversity-focused admissions materials and brochures
- Marketing/advertising in diversity publications and websites
- Student ambassadors communicating campus diversity to prospective students
- Link to the University’s diversity office and/or programming on the University’s website homepage
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
- Inspire people of diversity to be doctors, dentists, and health science professionals.
- Inform diverse populations of the University’s open heart, synergistic mission, scholarships, and support to help them “get there.”
- Leverage the University’s mission and vision of serving the underserved by reaching out to underserved populations with a message of inclusiveness and encouragement.
- Provide an internal university department with the tools and the guidance to produce high quality online content through live webinars.
- Develop a turn-key webinar kit for client use.
By leveraging high-quality online video, bridge the geographic and demographic gap and help reinforce and influence a culturally rich community embracing all differences, including but not limited to:
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Gender
- Disability
- Sexual orientation
- Place of birth
- Age
- Religious beliefs
- Political beliefs
- Socio-economic status
- Physical characteristics
- Military service
- Title
- Academic background
- Professional experiences
Target Populations
- African Americans
- Asians
- American Indians
- Hawaiians/other Pacific Islanders
- Hispanics
- Education influencers/undergrad counselors
EXECUTION
Online .edu
- Diversity landing page
- Webinar portal/interface
- Webinar seed content
- Departmental cross-linking
Online direct marketing outreach
(not random, shotgun advertising)
- Webinar engine driving reach/connection
- Webisodes created as online content
- Event marketing platform to build community and referral
- Viral content marketing
(1-to-1 student and influencer distribution)
RESULTS
The fact that the marketing and advertising agency was able to take on the task of researching, ordering, evaluating, and testing new video technologies for the client – and ensure the highest quality, most cost-effective solutions – not only did this provide time and money savings for the client but also extreme value to the project by ensuring implementation on time and on budget.
The diversity initiative has extended into a launch of an early recruitment strategy designed to work with school districts identifying “high performing students’’ who apply for one of 50 spots in a campus engagement curriculum. The students are transported to campus each year and engage in learning opportunities for the disciplines the University provides. Every year, the University highlights one program and provides a different campus experience.
The Graduate Health Professions (GPS) scholarship program, launched in 2016, now has surpassed its first goals for growth of historically underrepresented students enrolled in nearly all the residential degree programs. These students engage in orchestrated interprofessional activities designed by the scholarship program. These students in turn have also been instrumental in recruitment efforts over the last two years.
The diversity strategy has also paved the way for active pipeline programs with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and other Minority Service Institutions.
RECOGNITION
The diversity campaign propelled the University through internal change and growth as well as earned top recognition for its quality, effects within the communities and results achieving the University’s objective:
- 2017 Insight Into Diversity Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award
“The HEED Award is reflective of the hard work, the dedication and the effort that our entire campus community has put into achieving a more diverse outcome.”
~ University Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion
- Cynopsis Social Good Award’s National Recognition: 2017 Finalists in the Diversity Campaign Category
“Our board’s vision of preeminence includes increasing the diversity of healthcare providers serving everyone, especially those most in need. It is gratifying to be recognized for continuing the founding spirit of diversity and inclusion that included women in [our] first graduating class 125 years ago.”
~ Former chairman, University’s Board of Trustees (quote from news release distributed nationally)
- The St. Louis, MO Martin Luther King Celebration Committee’s Distinguished Public Service Award in 2016
Selected by the East Valley (AZ) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee for the Veora E. Johnson Spirit of Unity Award for “Improving Educational Excellence.”
