Nationwide, colleges face shrinking enrollment of campus based students. This is particularly true in the northeastern United States as its population ages and the numbers of high school aged students decline. The impact of an aging population on college enrollment necessitates more effectively directed marketing strategies. If not successfully addressed, declining admissions dramatically affect college budgets, their financial well being, and local employment.

College bound students are bombarded with media messaging that projects the admission process as being one that is oppressive, if not impossible. Immersive media, however, creates an emphatic, emotional response, that inspires curiosity, and drives a student’s desire to visit a campus–and to enroll.

Effective marketing campaigns should increase the applicant pool and strengthen the college/student connection. Immersive media has no geographic limitations and is delivered in a format that is familiar to today’s tech savvy students. As such, it launches an interactive communication opportunity for an applicant to experience an institution’s programming and assets through vibrant sensory input.

Will increased sensory exposure through immersive media bring a greater number of prospects to the campus so they make the decision to enroll?

Update: This project was suspended spring 2020.