December 2006 Lawlor Focus
A Variation on Holiday Greetings
Colleges and universities have long made a relationship-building practice of sending holiday cards to faculty/staff, alumni, donors, and friends, and admission offices typically send holiday cards to their prospective students as well—not with any "call to action" in the message, but rather to make them feel welcome as future members of the campus community. During recent years, schools have increasingly been distributing their holiday messages to prospective students via e-cards. Some of our favorites are noted below:
- Thanksgiving Greeting from Wesley College
- Merry Christmas from Ashland University
- University of Akron Holiday Greeting
- USCA Holiday Card
Submit your e-card!
E-mail the URL of your holiday greeting to tlg@thelawlorgroup.com, and we'll post selected cards here. Here are recent submissions:
As holiday e-cards from colleges and universities become more common, looking to other industries can be instructive in predicting "the next big thing." We are now seeing many companies utilize holiday themes to create viral campaigns—that is, attention-grabbing, entertaining content that "the cool kids" forward to their friends, post to their social networks and otherwise spread electronically like wildfire, creating a buzz for the company's brand. A few interactive examples include:
Frosty Fabricator
A Chicago ad agency lets you build a better snowman.
Holiday Party Excuse Generator
An Ann Arbor interactive agency helps you decline invitations with varying levels of grace.
Decorating with Mrs. Claus
The Home Depot lets you preview how your outdoor decorations will look.
Submit your favorite viral discovery!
E-mail the URL of any remarkable viral campaigns you have discovered to tlg@thelawlorgroup.com, and we’ll post selected sites here. Here are recent submissions:
- "Nutcracker Suite" Performed on Bicycle Parts
- Countdown to the Big Event
- A Mash-Up of the Holiday Season
- Holiday Ding-A-Ling
In general, these viral campaigns give the target audience something they didn't even know they wanted, for free. This generosity pays off for the sender in the form of an often-overlooked collateral benefit—it can improve the ranking of the sender's web site on search engines like Google. In ranking your web site, search engines rely on three indicators of quality: relevant content, accessible navigation and popularity. Popularity is determined by how many web sites have created standing links to yours, so every time someone else provides a link to a page on your site, search engines consider the page that much more important. And if you give your viral campaign a name that includes keywords for which you would like to rank highly on search result pages, people linking to your site using that name will help boost your ranking even more for searches on those keywords. Therefore, developing content for the sheer pleasure of your prospective students (anytime, whether it's to celebrate the holidays, the new year, an annual campus event, graduation, or even no date in particular) can be a case of doing well by doing good!
Lawlor Recommends
For the past couple of years around this time, a few pundits have gained considerable publicity by lamenting what they perceive as a "War on Christmas." Citing the tendency of companies and organizations to write messages like "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" in their cards rather than "Merry Christmas," they contend that political correctness has gone awry. As a result of the media frenzy, some colleges and universities have received complaints from recipients of their "Christmas"-less cards.
When crafting an appropriate message for your e-cards, the guiding principle is to be genuine and authentic. Consciously or not, prospective students, alumni and friends use the cards to gauge their "fit" with your campus' perceived values. The fact that you are sending the card at all conveys that your school is friendly and welcoming, and the nature of your message can be a further clue. Just as schools can indicate their accepting atmosphere by using all-inclusive language, some schools accomplish the same by naming the specific holiday, signaling their traditional religious ties to show that the campus embraces that tradition's enduring values. As we all know, you can never please everyone, but you can help your different audiences better understand your college's brand attributes by sending a message that authentically reflects what they can expect to experience on your campus.
In the News: Capturing "The Pressure Year"
Minneapolis Star Tribune higher education reporter Mary Jane Smetanka is following four high school seniors through the process of applying to colleges. Her article series is based on the premise that "even though there are enough college slots for everyone who wants a diploma, the push toward elite schools and the number of students applying have changed the playing field, making students feel compelled to stand out … Worries over test scores, college rankings and family expectations can make the process overwhelming." In addition to introducing the series, Smetanka has so far highlighted the nerve-racking search for just the right words for a college essay, and featured the strategies applicants use to market their strengths.
Did You Know?
Internet users are increasingly adopting emerging digital channels like text messages (88%), message boards (71%), blogs (63%), podcasting (36%) and RSS (28%). The demographic profile of people who use these communication tools leans heavily toward those who are younger and male.
Source: eMarketer
Is your school communicating with prospective students via messages and channels that actually reach them? To find out more about their preferences, or to have The Lawlor Group conduct an audit of your institution’s communications plan, please contact us by e-mailing tlg@thelawlorgroup.com or calling 1.800.972.4345.
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