Excited that your alumni will get to watch your campaign video online? Don't be too sure that they'll want to.
It's just one data point, but recently Peter Robertson, director of Annual Giving at Fresno State University (California, USA), pointed out something important to a CASE conference audience. When Fresno State hosted a contest (called I Am Fresno State) for student- and alumni-created videos, they showcased the finalists on video-sharing site YouTube. And logically, they decided to have some videos ready and waiting for users who visited the site before the contest videos were uploaded.
The results are telling. When all was said and done, there were five official videos on the site, produced by the campus communications staff. And there were 11 user-generated videos, created by students for the contest. A quick look at the number of times each has been viewed will give you some idea about how Fresno State's audiences are using the site.
As of the end of 2007, the five official videos (which were posted early and therefore even got a head start) had been viewed an average of 237 times each. The user-submitted content had been viewed an average of 1,883 times each. That's right: the unofficial, silly, student-created stuff is about eight times more likely to be watched than the official videos, which have names like Advancing World Class Agriculture, and Helping the Economy Grow.
The contest generated media attention as well, with ABC News and other outlets covering the story. And in selecting their favorite among the 11 finalists, Fresno State's voting audience even managed to take a shot at their more visible State system cousins, the University of California. Check out the winning video below.
One other thought: this is another example of a campus creating and cementing brand community around the school's identity. This kind of "viral investment" now will pay dividends with alumni affinity in the future. Charlie Melichar blogged about this in 2006.
By the way, Michael Stoner's blog recently had an interesting post on the relationship of official content and user trust, plus a link to some research on this whole topic. And Karine Joly's College Web Editor blog talked about a Pew Internet survey on online video (Pew report is available below).
Here are those links and a couple of the Fresno State sites:
Pew Internet's Video Sharing Report [PDF, 96k]
And the Fresno State Winning Video:
