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Being brave with the brand: Vancouver Island University’s #ILearnHere Instagram campaign and the power of content marketing through social visual communications
Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing,
1
(2),
177-190
(2016)
Abstract
In 2013 VIU’s strategic marketing team launched a successful Instagram campaign that focused on connecting with their target audience in a popular digital location. This campaign intended to boost stagnant enrolment at the University while increasing brand awareness within their region. This paper shares insights on what made this campaign successful with an audience interaction rate almost seven times higher than projected, how they controlled the campaign on a digital platform, and how they created and maintained a hashtag that resonated with their audience and continues to be dominated by the University today, with over 8,000 posts made by users since 2013. The information shared by Debra Jacklin, Strategic Marketing Manager at the time of the campaign, will explore the strategy and tactics developed for this campaign, how VIU measured meaningful results, as well as how the campaign concept was scaled and adapted for other purposes. The tactics shared by John Gardiner will explore how to effectively run the ‘day-to-day’ operations of a social media campaign.
Keywords: social media; Instagram; visual content marketing; crowd-sourced content; hashtag; mobile
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Debra Jacklin is the manager of talent acquisition, development and retention strategies for Vancouver Island University (VIU). In this role, Debra plays a critical part in setting the growth vision for VIU’s employee recruitment activity. With a background in corporate and recruitment marketing, she works towards defining VIU’s employment brand and sharing the many benefits of the VIU employment experience with others. She began her VIU career in 1996 and took on the role of Strategic Marketing Manager in 2009. As Marketing Manager, she won an IABC Gold Quill award for social media and a CPRS Excellence award for best electronic/social media project in 2014. In 2015, Debra’s team was nominated for a BCAMA Marketer of the Year award and was a finalist for the BCAMA Best Marketing on a Shoestring. Debra feels privileged to work in the education industry, which helps unite individuals with their dreams and goals. She holds a BA in English and a Public Relations diploma, both from the University of Victoria. Debra has been a literacy tutor and is currently a board member with the local chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
John Gardiner is videographer/photographer and social media coordinator at VIU. Working in the office of Strategic Marketing, he films and edits VIU’s promotional videos, moderates VIU’s main social media pages and takes photographs for VIU’s marketing materials. He has an extensive background in writing and film, having been published in major publications such as The Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Sun, and has won several awards for his short films. He has coordinated VIU’s social media efforts from the very beginning and continues to study and develop his skills to keep up with a constantly shifting marketing landscape.
