University and college marketeers are usually pretty conservative in their video marketing efforts. In recent months though, a new breed of university video has emerged. With the higher education marketing becoming more competitive, universities and colleges are beginning to use “viral video” to help differentiate themselves from the competition and raise brand awareness about their institutions amongst prospective students. In a couple of cases the results have been staggering.
The Central Institute of Technology
The Central Institute of Technology in Australia are one of the latest educational establishments to create a successful viral video with a campaign that is as controversial as it is brilliant. The video has been on the web for a little over a week and has already racked up over one million views, with websites like Reddit spreading it like wildfire.
A lot of the video’s success comes from enlisting the help of Australian comedians, and online video heroes Henry and Aaron to help create their viral video campaign. With the duo on board they take the viewer on a video journey that starts out as a jovial, creative way to showcase Universities and ends in the terrifying and grizzly death of a snapping, woolly-hat-wearing God.
Does the campaign work? Well, it certainly sticks in your mind. It will be interesting to see what results this video campaign generates for The Central Institute of Technology. For now though both Henry and Aaron and The Central Institute of Technology will no doubt enjoy the thrills and spills of the viral wave.
Lincoln University
Henry and Aaron’s video isn’t the first time a popular online individual has helped create a viral video. In early 2011 a viral video was produced about Lincoln University with the help of YouTube celebrity Tom Ska.
This particular viral video campaign depicts Lincoln University to be home to the only course in the world that teaches the art of zombie annihilation. The video has atttracted nearly two million views, and created an awful lot of buzz on the web.
Unlike The Central Institute of Technology this video wasn’t commissioned by the University, so it’s difficult to imagine whether the video was created to benefit Tom Ska’s viral online status, or to spread awareness about Lincoln University, or both.
This wasn’t the first viral video Tom Ska has produced in the name of Lincoln University either. Check out his earlier attempt, which again generated well over one million views:
Arguably, as Lincoln has not attempted to take down Tom Ska’s YouTube University content, his video campaigns can’t be doing the University any harm. Quite the reverse, in all likelyhood. As you’ll see from the comments on YouTube for this video, a lot of prospective students are now talking about the University (and its zombie-themed courses).
The Future of University Video Content
Whether Universities are commissioning content, or whether their students are taking their own initiatives to produce user generated content for the University, the state of online video in the education sector is certainly changing. Now more than ever the viral campaigns of Universities and Colleges are getting more creative, more controversial and more remarkable than ever before.
It’s hard to argue that three videos with over a million views each might not be a success, but ultimately we’ll have to wait and see if such innovative approaches to online video truly do benefit Universities and Colleges around the world.
