Masdar Institute of Science and Technology Reaches More Students with an All-Year-Round Virtual Open Day

Highlights

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is one of the most recognizable names in the region, with an on-going collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Having previously relied on traditional avenues involving use of physical open days to attract potential students and promote programs, they felt a strong need for change in strategy to conquer more in terms of enrollment, awareness, and branding.

vFairs provided the ideal platform for them to customize their virtual event, reach more students with an extended window and generate more leads.

The Challenge

Physical open days provided a very narrow window of time within which students could experience interactions with university staff, explore campus life, and assess academic programs.

This led to the surfacing of more critical problems: Fewer leads, limited communication with university staff, and overall decreased understanding of the facilities the university had to offer. All these problems were adversely impacting the institute’s enrollment rates.

The Solution

With focus on expanding lead generation and overcoming the restrictions associated with physical open day events, vFairs provided the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology with a powerful virtual “futureproof” platform. The platform promoted increased enrollment by adding a more welcoming experience for interested students/parents. It also helped with resilience to break free from limiting schedules that may not always have been in sync with keen students wanting to pursue higher education at this university.

vFairs built a precise technology solution to help achieve higher return on investment with less costs incurred, build better relationships with future prospects, and secure an edge against competitors through visibly improved success metrics in place.

Unparalleled Flexibility

With no physical presence required from event visitors or admissions staff, the open day solution implemented by vFairs allowed interested students to participate regardless of where they were based geographically or time zone differences (without having to worry about losing their spot due to capacity limitations).

No travel costs or scheduling-related burdens boosted lead generation for the institute. The virtual platform allowed the university to now host a virtual open day around the year with valuable delivery of information related to applications, academic calendar, innovation initiatives, etc.

This maintained a consistent flow of visitors without the university confining open days to certain calendar days to experience growth in traffic and lead capturing.

Streamlined Lead Capturing

Attracting a high volume of visitors was not enough, vFairs provided a customized registration form to help the client precisely capture the information that mattered most. This made it very easy to achieve a mini database of prospects with follow-up contact details so that leads could be qualified and pursued further based on their relevance.

Marketing

The vFairs team drove marketing success for the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology through strategic email shots. Furthermore, we used a mailing list of prospective students to be targeted from across high schools and GCC in general. This was done in order to accelerate interest, and fully utilize the increased open day capacity that was now available to educate, engage and interact with the key audience.

With a prospect base of approximately 500 leads generated within 3 months of this virtual event going live, it was obvious that the market efforts had caught the eye of the right audience with tremendous efficiency.

Consistent Communication

The virtual open day provided consistent communication channels to communicate with the university admission staff. The clearly marked “Contact Us” call to action option took the user to a form where they could submit their question in order to be contacted by relevant personnel to help find the right answers.

There was never a disconnect with the audience which made running a yearlong virtual open day event a very viable option to pursue.

Audience Engagement

The information shared in an institute’s physical event setting can have limited influence. Curriculums are ever-changing, academic calendars are being updated, and new scholarships/grants are frequently announced. vFairs enabled the client to share the most updated insights with their target audience so there was an incentive and proactive interest captured for the students to regularly visit the platform for news.

The Result

vFairs was able to provide the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology with an innovative technology solution to achieve a virtual open day platform that delivered great results across all performance pillars- leads, cost, efficiency, marketing, branding and seamless flow of communication to ensure all interested visitors got the answers they were seeking from the university.

Powered with branding that remained true to the institute’s identity, the vFairs team delivered a successful open day event that will remain in session throughout the year with no time, space, or geographical limitations. It was a great way to encourage widespread student interest and participation.