UC-CCM: Recruitment Viewpiece

Situation

Like all recruitment operations, the Admissions Office at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (a performing arts conservatory within a large public university) struggled to find the best strategy for a viewbook, the annual recruitment publication for prospective students and their parents. Because CCM is a comprehensive performing arts conservatory, it was a challenge to represent all of the programs adequately in a summary booklet. Additionally since students are interested in one or a few programs, that means that the rest of the book, the majority in fact, was not relevant or interesting. Consequently students were reluctant to take one, didn't keep it for long, and often declined to take one at all thus eliminating the effectiveness of the tool. Further, the viewbooks were expensive to mail, difficult to transport between locations, and usually resulted in a surplus at the end of each recruitment event as well as at the end of the year when they had to be discarded since they would be out of date for the following cycle.

Solution

In lieu of a viewbook we created a "viewpiece." This was an attractive folder designed with all the intentionality and creativity of a viewbook cover, and the inside of the folder was populated with content relevant to all programs. We then 22 one-page inserts, a few of which were common to all programs (for instance Application and Financial Aid, Facilities, etc.), the rest of which represented and promoted a specific program or group of programs. Similarly, each insert was created with the informational content students wanted, engaging pictures, and a style consistent with the outer folder. The admission counselor was then able to customize each viewpiece to the interests of the student they met by including only those inserts relevant to the student.

Success

As a result of this new strategic approach, the recruiters gave out far more viewpieces than they had viewbooks from previous years. Students appreciated the customization, and parents especially commented on how different and more personalized this was compared to other schools.

Of course we are now in an area of hyper-customization and print on demand, however this was back in 2007, prior to that kind of effort being economically feasible. Through this initiative, CCM was an exemplary on the forefront of a new recruitment movement. Competitors adopted the approach over the following years, modeling their own publications after the approach of CCM based on how effective it proved to be.