From the Nominator

With COVID-19 limiting prospective students’ ability to visit campus, Syracuse University had to adapt for its 2020 recruiting cycle. Although virtual campus tours were nothing new, we wanted to create something more impactful than the standard several-minutes-long-campus-overview video typical of the category. Enter Orange Experience: a series of short, handheld, rapid-fire Q&A style videos hosted by students. The idea was to focus on each student-host’s personal story first, and campus locations second–making the viewing experience feel less like a tour, and more like getting to know someone. In addition, the short length, fast pacing and modular format made the Orange Experience series ideal for social media. Each video garnered thousands of social media engagements within 24 hours of their release, while driving web traffic up exponentially.

From the Judges

We liked the “72 seconds with” format. It was a creative way to show the school/campus/buildings without feeling trite. It was clear who the intended audience was (Gen Z). The use of cell phone footage for the Syracuse/Clemson win was a clever way to feel authentic to a Gen Z audience, since we know there is probably a ton of professional footage of that moment they could have used instead. Kudos!