SFU Surrey Community Open House
Crafting digital marketing strategies, paid advertising campaigns, and print and digital assets for a flagship event at Simon Fraser University.
OVERVIEW
Timeline
8 weeks (Sep - Oct 2022)
Team
Isabelle Louie, Jessie Downey
Toolkit
InDesign, Illustrator, Meta Ads Manager, Hootsuite, Eventbrite
Context
The SFU Surrey Community Open House took place on October 27, 2022 in celebration of SFU Surrey's 20th anniversary.
Role
As the Communications, Marketing, and Design Lead for the event, I implemented social media contests and paid advertising campaigns; designed digital and print assets such as event programs, promotional posters, and a communications kit; and worked with the Project Manager to connect with faculties, sponsors and community groups to ensure the accuracy of marketing materials and coordination of event activities.
EVENT PROMOTION
Promotional Channels
Leveraging internal and external channels to reach a wider audience.
The primary channels used in the promotion of the event were SFU Surrey’s social media accounts (Instagram, Facebook and Twitter), the internal SFU faculty and staff newsletter, external newsletters from local community groups including the Surrey Board of Trade, and SFU Surrey’s website.
To assist faculty, staff and community groups in amplifying the event, I created a communications toolkit with suggested captions and accompanying graphics. These graphics were designed to be in line with SFU’s general brand guidelines while incorporating aspects of SFU Surrey’s 20th anniversary branding, such as the 20th anniversary wordmark.
Event graphics for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Social Media Strategy
Running contests and paid advertising to increase exposure.
Our social media strategy involved running contests on Instagram and Twitter and paid advertising on Instagram and Facebook. The main goals of the social media contests were to increase event awareness within the community and increase registration numbers. To achieve this, users were prompted to like, share and tag friends on contest posts in exchange for a chance to win a variety of gift cards to local businesses. Additionally, users who registered for the event were entered into the grand prize draw for a MacBook Air and 9th generation iPad and were required to be in attendance at the time of the draw to win.
SFU Surrey's Instagram feed with Open House promotional posts
While the social media contests helped to increase web traffic and event registrations, many of the initial registrants were current SFU students, faculty or staff. To reach the larger Surrey community, especially prospective students and their parents/guardians, I ran a series of paid social media ads on SFU Surrey's Facebook and Instagram channels.
Ad reach on SFU Surrey's Facebook and Instagram pages
Overall, our social media strategy was extremely successful with 31.06% of registrants hearing about the event directly from social media. Additionally, 62.04% of registrants were prospective students or parents/guardians of prospective students.
EVENT COLLATERAL
Print and Digital Materials
Designing event programs, passports, digital screens, and a hanging banner.
As the Design Lead, I created all the event collateral. This included the print and digital program, event passport to collect prize entries, information on the campus digital screens, and a hanging banner for the Mezzanine.
Event passport for guests to visit booths and collect stamps in exchange for prize entries
SFU Surrey's 20th anniversary banner, designed for the Mezzanine
REFLECTION
Final Thoughts
The SFU Surrey Community Open House was an exciting challenge during my time as the Communications Specialist for the SFU Surrey Campus Administration. With the large scope of the project, I had many opportunities to apply and refine my skills in layout design, graphic design, copywriting, and social media engagement.
I also had the opportunity to develop new skills in paid social media advertising. In particular, I expanded my skillset to include budget allocation, digital media analytics, and working with Meta Ads Manager to create and manage multiple ad sets and campaigns.
Ultimately, the SFU Surrey Community Open House was a huge success. With over 800 registrations and 1200 guests, hundreds of faculty demos, information sessions and meaningful connections, the event provided a great opportunity for the community to connect with the campus and celebrate SFU Surrey's 20th anniversary.
