Award: Gold

Institution: University of Washington

Title of Entry: Find Yourself in UW's College of Arts & Sciences

About this Entry: The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at the University of Washington sought to differentiate itself from other public flagship universities. A recent comprehensive research program revealed that prospective students commonly associate the UW with STEM-related programs and less with arts, humanities and social science programs. This created a need to reach out to potential applicants interested in these areas. The CAS MarComm team developed a student recruitment video to promote the College as a place for prospective and current students to find a diverse, interdisciplinary, cutting edge, inspirational and transformative student experience. The “Find Yourself HERE” video uses key messages and strong visuals to appeal to prospective students and pairs the clever play of words with vibrant imagery. These surprising combinations of words and imagery illustrate the journey a student may find themselves in the exploration of the College’s academic programs. The key objective of the video was to increase application to these programs in the weeks leading up to the application deadline.
The overall tone of the video is authentic, witty, light-hearted, and inspirational. The style of the imagery and visuals are a fast-paced montage of motion graphic titles spliced in between video and upbeat music.
The video was released first via email in the weeks leading up to the UW’s November application deadline, and shared via social media on Instagram and Twitter. Applications to arts, humanities and social sciences programs increased significantly, which helped to boost enrollments in these programs the year following the video’s release.