I may be completely wrong about this, but hear me out. Big companies like Coca Cola are creating Webisodes, essentially a TV series that’s aired online, where their product plays an intrinsic role in the plot. It’s a great way to reach Millennials where TV and print ads fail, it lets online media earn some money, and it puts product placement on steriods.
I suggest admissions offices try to copy this idea. As an institution of higher learning, you have the potential to do a much better job at a dramatically lower cost.
Coca Cola has the daunting challenge of making Nestea an intrinsic part of the plot. In your institution’s Webisodes, the campus would be the natural setting, and campus life would by its nature remain at the core of the plot. You wouldn’t ahve to worry about being sensitive in your product placement, because your “product” is what most viewers want to see.
Assuming your school has a healthy pool of film, media, and fine arts students, your production costs would be virtually zero. Webisodes could become a part of the curriculum, tapping into a wealth of creative energy.
On the one hand, your institution could provide access to cameras, editing software and other resources that would enable the project to stand out from the casual YouTube video recorded off a cell phone. In return, you wouldn’t need Coca Cola’s giant budget because your writers, actors, and crew would be working for grades and credits. This could also be an excellent job as part of a work-study program.
The key to making this work is getting the students to own the project and run with it. You may have to impose some obvious guidelines, such as forbidding racism and excessive drug and alcohol abuse. But if the participants get the message, “We won’t censor you but you will be graded on this” they’re likely to do a first-rate, professional job.
Coca Cola is paying to run their Webisodes on game consuls and some internet sites. If you’ve got the budget, it may help to do some of this as well. But even if you just run your Webisodes on free sites like YouTube they’ll come up in a search, and your students and alumnae will share them with friends and family.
The trickiest part of this, especially for a large institution, would be the necessary collaboration across multiple offices, departments, and disciplines. I didn’t say this would be easy. But there’s a phenomenal opportunity here. I’d like to see someone do it.
