Vancouver Island University ran a successful Instagram marketing campaign from August to October 2013 with the goal of raising awareness and increasing enrollment among regional high school students. The campaign partnered with influencers and student ambassadors to generate content using the hashtag #ILEARNHERE. It was monitored closely to measure engagement and evolve the strategy. Outcomes included defined goals, manual review of content, and third-party data showing increased engagement. The campaign was awarded and provided an ongoing source of content and positive coverage for the university.

1. #ILEARNHERE
Vancouver Island University's
Instagram Campaign
Debra Jacklin, Strategic Marketing Manager John Gardiner, Social Media Coordinator

2. O N B E I N G B R A V E
W I T H T H E B R A N D
The power of content marketing
through social- visual communication

3. Social- Visual:
digital images shareable on
social platforms
~ goal is engagement

4. HOLTZ.COM
INDUSTRY EXPERT: SHEL HOLTZ

5. Background
Date of Campaign:
August 26 - October 6/13
Partner Agency:
My Loud Speaker
Budget: $11,500
Goal:
Awareness / Enrolment
In-house resources:
Two full-time employees

6. Why Instagram?
*Majority users 12 - 19
*100 million users, fastest
growing social media platform
(2013), now over
300 million
*Platform untapped within
industry
*Optimal for displaying location
and community

7. Business Need
* Increase VIU’s brand
equity with regional high
school aged millennials
~ increase exposure and
pervasiveness of the VIU
brand: awareness
~ reinforce the
perception of VIU as a
university

8. Strategy
*Celebrity
Instagrammers, built-in
followers
*Student ambassadors
to seed the campaign
*Contest to generate
and maintain interest,
WOW prizes throughout

11. Don't Skimp on Legal

12. Workload
*Regular monitoring -- do
not underestimate
*Teamed with agency
technicians, planned shifts
*Monitoring helped evolve
strategy
*Neutralizing issues

13. Outcomes
*Defined goals going into
campaign
*Manual review of content
for measurement
*Third party data collection
for measurement on
engagement: Nitrogram
(which became Totem,
which became Stripe...)

14. Campaign
Success
*Awards -- yay!
*Source of content;
ongoing content marketing
*Coverage for VIU, e.g.
IABC article = earned
promo

15. Mall Ad Poster

16. Current
Activity
*longer term campaign
with Enrolment Mgmt
Themes:
#BestView
#StudySpot
#MorningFuel
#VIUFriends
#ILearnHere
#FavProf
ilearnhere.viu.ca

17. Other
Opportunities
*Convocation campaign
using #VIUGrad
~Aggregate using Storify
~Embed on webpage,
redirect to content

18. Hashtags
*Crowdsourcing visual
content
~Use to tell the story of
your brand experience
~Drive engagement

19. QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU!
@maurice