Understanding how a virtual tour 'fits' into your school marketing strategy is key. Follow Clongowes' Journey to see just how much their tour is working for them - work smarter, not harder.
Clongowes needed the tour to act as a tool to get results, engage families and boost admissions. So, we were brought in to build an improved virtual tour of the grounds, accomodation and school facilities of Clongowes Wood College, Clane in Co. Kildare, Ireland. Clongowes is a very well-known, all boys, full-boarding independent school. The school were looking to maintain and increase interest in full boarding, whilst giving both local parents unable to travel as well as international parents who may never see the school, an opportunity to explore the school grounds, dormitories, dining hall, sports facilities and everything Clongowes has to offer as a home away from home.
Identify what the purpose of the project was and determine which were the key areas of the school to photograph in order to create the canvas for our content. With boarding provision a focus (making families feel comforted by the warm atmosphere), we knew we had to make feature of the boarding facilities. We included many different dorm styles at different age ranges with additional focus on the community spaces and common rooms that ‘the lads’ call home in their off-time. Making the rooms look as good as they do in person and giving them a home-like feel was a fairly simple task! Dining, Weights Gym, the amazing Swimming Pool and Sports Hall are all also key factors for boys making school decisions. For parents, it was also about the extra and co-curricular and religious provision which is why the topics Art, Music and Faith also featured in the tour.
We captured drone footage, stills and 360 pans, as well as some 360 video on the golf course and in the chapel, and a video of the Headmaster doing a walk-and-talk video greeting. All content captured has since been layered and added into the tour, making it an interactive, informative and immersive experience. The engagement results below show you just how useful parents are finding the tour as a stepping stone to contact admissions and/or as a ‘must-do’ during the admissions and family recruitment process.
The tour works as a ‘connection’ between the families and the school and has proven to be one of the schools greatest admissions assets. The tour is used as part of most or all family interviews during the admissions process. The school feel after 4 months of statistics, that the tour should be expanded to be capitalised upon with future development work planned on the tour.
The school’s marketing department have gone from strength to strength and this campaign of using the tour as a ‘magnet’ to attract and as a ‘fuzzy blanket’ to assure families of the great care their sons will be under at Clongowes, has been an absolute success.
As part of the Launch Process, 360 Marketing Lab provides a detailed handbook on best practice for launching the tour on social, website and other digital channels. There is also more ‘hands-on’ support provided by our preferred partner for digital launch consultancy, advice and all around amazingness – Emma Fell at Attenger Digital. Emma is on hand for anyone we work with for general advice and help getting the most out of your asset – including social media advertising.
We engaged 360 Marketing Lab to produce a virtual tour for our school during the pandemic. What we got exceeded our expectations in terms of the quality of the photography, the user experience and the attention to detail – they thought of everything at every step of the project. Taralyn and Craig were a joy to work with and always looked for ways to innovate in capturing the very essence of our school. The team have a real pride in their work and want to produce the very best tour possible for their clients. Our tour is not just very nice photography, it’s a truly immersive experience. They went above and beyond to deliver a great end product – they are the best in the business!
Aine Corcoran, Director of Admissions and Communications, Clongowes Wood College
School Tour
Experience Clongowes Wood College first hand in the virtual tour – move room to room via the hotspots or navigate with the room list. Open the information hotspots in each room and discover more through imagery, video and stories. Listen to James, one of the pupils, introduce you to each space and say what the lads do for fun around Clongowes. You should feel connected to the school when you’re done, and if so, then we’re all winning!
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