2020 was a difficult year for everyone, but it brought particular challenges for high school students — especially those who were trying to decide what college they wanted to attend. To help make it easier, Advance Media New York, a marketing agency located in Syracuse, New York, created the Northeast Virtual College Fair.

The virtual fair was designed to connect higher education institutions and high school students during a global pandemic when in-person visits weren’t possible. This unique approach gave prospective students a feel for the college campus from the comfort of their home while putting recruitment officers in touch with students interested in their schools.

The Northeast Virtual College Fair was a joint effort between Advance Media New York, PA Media Group, and MassLive Media — all of which are marketing companies spread out across the Northeast region.

Creating a virtual college tour

The Virtual College Fair presented a unique opportunity not only for prospective college students, but it gave Advance Media the chance to build new business relationships with colleges it had not done business with in the past. The three-week initiative represented a tremendous opportunity for colleges to connect with students, and it ended up attracting participation from 46 regional colleges.   

The virtual experience began with a Web site that was the central portal for the college fair. Each participating college had its own dedicated profile page where students could learn more about the school.

The page included outbound links to various resources on each college’s Web site, and the college fair was promoted through newspaper ads, sponsored content articles, online banner ads, social media ads, email blasts, and outreach directly to area high schools. To provide greater incentive for students to participate, every student who registered was entered into a drawing for a US$350 Amazon gift card.

Enthusiastic response from both sides

The inaugural Virtual College Fair received positive feedback both from students and participating colleges. Among the positive results we received were:

• Close to US$20,000 in new/opportunistic business.
• 2,600 Web site users.
• 3,200 user sessions.
• 4,800 pageviews.
• 2.5 minutes per page for non-bounced traffic.

The success of the 2020 Northeast Virtual College Fair made all three marketing companies decide to continue doing such annual events. The second installment of the fair is being held March 22-April 11, 2021, and Advance Local Media’s sister company, NJ Advance Media, joined forces with the other three companies to expand the footprint of the fair.

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