Report from the 2011 Ontario College Information Fair -- Tim Fricker

A guest blog from Campus Living Centres' Tim Fricker

Ice sculptures, photo booths, contests, free giveaways, live radio broadcasts, VIP lounges, chefs handing out food, motorcycles on display, and movies playing on big screen televisions – you may think you’re at a carnival, but this was the scene at the Ontario College Information Fair Tuesday. And this was just the beginning of it.

As a guest blogger, JP Rains provided an excellent account of the new and different marketing approaches seen at the OCIF this year. Gretta Barnwell also offered some great insights into the key questions students and parents were asking (and probably should have asked), and noted that there is a sentiment that choosing an institution to study is looking and feeling like a contest of "who’s cooler."

However, as an outsider looking in, I have a little bit of a different take on the OCIF. Overall, I think this was a really positive and powerful event. But I wonder if there’s more that can be done by each institution to have a greater impact on prospective students (and parents). Let me explain.

First, it should be noted that I am not a professional recruiter. I am not a parent of a prospective student, and it’s been a long time since I was looking into school myself. I am a residence life professional with a unique role in Canada. I have the great opportunity and privilege to work with more than half of the colleges across the province. I travel from campus to campus supporting students, student leaders, residence managers, and student services initiatives. This experience allows me to gain broad perspective of the needs of students, parents, and the institutions themselves. And with that, I find I need to ask a lot of very critical questions to get to the root of an issue and find the most effective solutions to problems... so humour me as I share a few thoughts.

Marketing Approaches

If you’ve been to a College or University Information Fair in the recent past, then you will understand the hype and the gimmicks. And if you’re a higher education marketing or recruitment professional, then you will also understand how critical this information fair is to an institution – and the competition for students. On a very basic level, here’s some of the key goals of the information fair as I see them: (1) get students/parents to your booth (or presentation); (2) talk to them and encourage them to consider your school; (3) ensure they leave with your print materials; (4) provide contests and incentives to get them to fill out a survey or information form; and (5) while doing all this, make sure you are show that you are sincere, caring, and spend enough time with each student/parent to hear their needs and sell them on what your institution can do for them. I think it’s safe to say that accomplishing all of this is challenging. I think there is a fine balance between trying to draw as many students into your booth as possible, while still giving each person enough attention. I wonder how well each institution did at achieving these goals?

Some institutions had very large and impressive booths, with 15-20 foot backdrops, televisions, special lighting, dozens of staff and student representatives, and a whole array of props and gimmicks. On the other end of the spectrum, some booths were quite basic, and amounted to not much more than a couple banners, a few staff, and their handouts. I found this contrast quite curious. I am sure there’s a whole host of strategic reasons why an institution would choose one way or another, and my hope is that these were indeed strategic decisions. Of note is that the largest and most prominent booths were those of the 6 host institutions from the GTA. Since college recruitment is still very much driven by region, this makes sense. Each institution was advertising their fall open house events, which allows those institutions with a smaller profile inside the GTA to have a chance to push their marketing efforts further.

I was impressed with how far institutions went to draw students to their booth with gimmicks, contests and prizes. This typically required students to complete a short survey (via iPad, computer, or the old fashioned pen and paper) before they could participate in the draw or contest. George Brown College had a unique approach that offered students a code that they could then use to try and unlock a safe to win a prize. Humber College gave students the opportunity to stand in a glass box that had fake money blowing around inside. Students had 30 seconds to catch the money and put it in a basket. The amount they collected they could use towards "purchasing" an array of prizes such as branded clothing and accessories. Canadore College had someone creating two ice sculptures and a live radio broadcast from their student station. Each institution offered something like this, but the critical questions I think higher education professionals need to ask is: What worked, and why? And the answer to that question I think needs to be rooted in a few things: (1) From a pure business sense, what was the return on investment? (2) What were the goals of the institution at the fair? And, are we spending time and money on the right things? Obviously I have no idea what those goals are for each institution, but I think it would be fascinating to learn how a recruitment and marketing department figures out their ROI and sets goals for future years.

Experience of Students and Parents

I was at the fair for about four hours during the morning and early afternoon. I arrived shortly after 10 a.m. as the fair was starting. I watched bus after bus of students driving in. I found myself overwhelmed by the number of people as I stepped into the exhibition hall. It was packed. I had my laptop bag over my shoulder, which proved to be more of an annoyance than a convenience because everywhere I turned I needed to squeeze through people and my bag got in the way. During the morning rush, there definitely was not enough space in the exhibition hall.

Interestingly enough, there were probably just as many people outside the exhibition hall as they appeared to be sitting around waiting for their bus to depart. Many of the students seemed bored. They were playing on their smartphones. Curious, I had some conversations with some of these students and parents. Parents emphasized that they appreciated the opportunity to speak with someone face-to-face about the institution. But the students didn’t have much to say. One girl said that it was interesting being at the fair, but that she could figure out almost everything online. Both parents and students commented on how busy it was and the size of the lines.

These observations make me think about the overall experience of these students and parents and wonder how this could be improved in future years. Is more space needed? I also wonder what messages we are giving to students and parents about college. Are we achieving what we want to achieve through this process?

All of these questions are probably great jumping off points for a future research project for someone... come to think of it, I did see representatives there from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario conducting some surveys, but I have no idea what they were on. I will have to watch for that report.