Dennis Miller from Mansfield University has done a lot of great work creating and producing engaging podcasts to promote his institution to prospective students, their parents and the world.
Lately, Dennis has been working on a new project, with video this time.
In a recent post on his blog, “YouTube, Wrong Channel?”, Dennis was second-guessing his decision to produce a few recruiting videos for YouTube after being told by female students that YouTube was mainly used by guys:
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that my primary target audience in recruiting is mothers of high school age students. My secondary audience is female high school juniors and seniors. Sounds like I’m not going to get even close to getting my message to them through YouTube unless I do something drastically different than posting TV spots.
I do have a couple productions we’re working on now that are different than the usual commercial fare.
But. . .
Now I’m wondering, if the majority of people in the high school/college age group is using YouTube for dumb humor, can the site ever be viable for serious recruiting?
At that time, I remembered a post about carriers vs. targets written by Michael Caulfield from Keen State College, and made the following comment on Dennis’ post:
And, how about doing a video that will target the young women, the mothers and their daughters by using their brothers or sons as carriers? If you can get the guys interested enough to look at the video and share it with the women in their life you might achieve your goals.
Now, I didn’t say that finding a concept that would achieve this was simple, but it’s worth thinking about it.
So, what does Mozart has to do with all of this?
Well, Dennis Miller has just posted the first video featuring compelling stories from Mansfield University’s students. Mozart Guerrier, a psychology major and a poet, is featured in this first video (209 views at the time of this writing, just 3 days after it was uploaded)… and it might be the type of videos that could interest the women Dennis is trying to reach.
Time will tell if this works, but I definitely think it’s worth trying.
There’s just one thing missing. Something Duke University, among others, does pretty well: the last frame should display a call to action with an easy to remember web address.
What do you think? Do you think this kind of videos can help Dennis reach his target audience?
