Video vs. 360 Virtual Campus Tour: What’s The Difference for Schools?
Introduction
As the amount of digital content platforms and formats grow, and your school budget remains the same, it can be difficult to understand what is the right investment for your school. When it comes to showcasing your school facilities and campus, it is widely accepted that simple photography is no longer enough, and many of the leading international schools are investing heavily into video and virtual campus tours.
But what is the difference between a 360° virtual campus tour, and a video campus tour? With limited school budgets and busy schedules, it is easy to postpone this decision because of difficult questions like this, but doing so can leave you lagging behind your competitor schools and slow your admissions growth.
As experts in education and digital content, we’ve taken a look at the many different benefits a video campus tour or 360° virtual campus tour can provide, and are happy to share with you our recommendations.
Are Video Campus Tours Right for Schools?
A video tour of your school campus and facilities, also known as a walkthrough video, can take many different forms. Often, schools will opt for members of their community to present various campus locations to prospective families. Here', students and staff can directly address prospective families, offering personal experiences and stories while walking through different locations.
However, we recommend that schools try more innovative video formats for their campus tour in order to stand out from the crowd. In this video series we produced for leading private boarding school, Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz, we made use of professional drone videography to create a jaw-dropping effect of flying through the school campus and facilities. Produced for both winter and summer seasons, we found that this video format created a stronger impact on engagement than traditional walkthrough videos, as it gave life and energy to the campus.
Another innovative format that we have developed takes a modern twist on the traditional walkthrough, and adapts it for social media marketing. In this campus walkthrough produced for Collège Champittet, the energy of viral marketing and the functionality of a school video tour was combined into an eye-catching and engaging video. Here, we can see the school facilities, the educational activities, and the overall learning environmnent, all within 60 seconds, proving a goldmine for social media platforms such as Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube.
If done right, video campus tours are an excellent opportunity to showcase your school in action, and give prospective families a glimpse into the diverse opportunities available at your school. However, using unprofessional videography or basic formats decreases your return on investment, so we always recommend consulting with experts and thinking outside the box to create added value to your video campus tour.
360° Virtual Campus Tours: What’s the Benefit?
With an interactive user interface and panoramic, 360° images, a virtual campus tour is starkly different to its video counterpart. While video campus tours take prospective families on a tour of your school, a 360° virtual campus tour allows prospective families to explore the campus themselves, providing a more immersive experience. Virtual campus tours can include many features which enhance the tour experience, such as the embedded media and information cards which you can find in this tour we produced with the American School of Paris.
Aerial panoramic shots allow for even more immersion, giving a stunning birds-eye view of the surroundings of your school. In this tour for Collège du Léman International School, the use of an aerial view communicates the modern facilities of the school, its close proximity to the city of Geneva, and its peaceful natural surroundings, all in one impactful image. Adding to this a fully-branded interface, contact form and links to social media means this tour is fully realised as an effective admissions tool.
This is where the true benefits of a 360° virtual campus tours lie, going beyond simply showing your school, and immersing prospective families in your learning environment. If you’d like to learn more about how to best utilise a virtual campus tour, see our how-to guide here.
Video vs. Virtual Tour: The Bottom Line
Ultimately, the differences between a video campus tour and virtual campus tour are simple:
A video campus tour is a marketing tool, optimal for creating reach and engagement with your target market;
A virtual campus tour is an admissions tool, built to convert prospective families into enthusiastic enrolments.
From our experience, we believe that there is no better choice of one over the other, and in fact a video campus tour and a virtual campus tour are most impactful when combined! Video campus tours can draw an audience to your virtual tour, creating more organic traffic on your website, and strengthening your admissions pipeline. Likewise, a virtual campus tour can embed your video campus tour within its interface, adding a multimedia depth to the digital experience.
If you’re looking to level-up your school’s marketing efforts and admissions growth, or perhaps just want to learn more about the topic, then don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our school marketing experts in your region! You can contact us anytime through our website, or call us on +44 20 34 55 22 41.
