By: Casey Bachand, Amanda Hemingway, Alisa Howlett,

David Sloan, and Abigail Toledo Jama

Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1
The Problem ......................................................................................................... 2
Goal ....................................................................................................................... 4
Audience ............................................................................................................... 5
ADC's Solution ..................................................................................................... 7
Timeline .............................................................................................................. 11
Evaluation ........................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 13
ADC MEDIA ........................................................................................................ 14
Works Cited ........................................................................................................ 15

Royal Roads University (Royal Roads) provides their students with a unique way to
approach post-secondary education. The university offers accelerated programs,
allowing working professionals to pursue their bachelors degree, masters degree and
certificate in a timely manner. With a captivating and historical campus, coupled with a
cohort model approach to learning, Royal Roads provides their students with a rich
and enchanting atmosphere.

While the university does encompass unique selling points, their online and social
media presence does not reflect the universitys brand or campus. With only one per
cent of traffic to the universitys website coming from their social media platforms, the
niche market that Royal Roads currently has is not being promoted to its full potential.
Although most of the universitys online traffic does come from the Royal Roads
website (36 per cent), their national and category rank remains low (SimilarWeb, 2016).
After reviewing Royal Roads Netlytics, we have found that there are several irrelevant
influencers on all of the universitys social media platformsespecially the Twitter
account, which has four of the bigger nodes hash tagging RRU as Rapid Response
Unit (Netlytic, 2016).
With an abundance of secondary Facebook and Twitter profiles, lack of consistent
posting, and overall poor social media promoting skills, the university is not taking
advantage of its target market. Instead of the Facebook pages focus being centralized
on promoting the school, the majority of content is focused on faculty members and
content that is not related to the university. The time between posts remains
inconsistent. Some days there is no content posted, and others there is an abundance
of content posted within minutes of each post. There seems to be no awareness of
social media peak hours and as a result, audience interaction remains low.

Figure 1. Similarweb.com: Comparing traffic on the following RRU social media accounts:
Facebook | Twitter | VK | Live Journal | YouTube

Figure 2. netlytic.org: Observing online engagement around the hashtag #RRU

Figure 3. netlytic.org: Observing online engagement around @RoyalRoads

Currently, the universitys main Facebook page remains its most popular social media
platform. With 69 per cent of their social media traffic coming from that page, the need
to put forth more attention to their other online mediums should be a priority. Royal
Roads Instagram page remains stagnant, and at this point, there are too many
unofficial university accounts related to the university. Their stagnant Instagram
account, coupled with unofficial pages, only hinders their social media presence. Also,
when content is posted from their other online accounts (Twitter, YouTube and
Instagram), there is no correlation between any of them in terms of content.
The problem that Royal Roads has with their online presence will only get worse if not
addressed. With essentially no traffic coming from any of their social media pages, the
need for continuity amongst them all is a must. If this lack of attention towards their
social media pages continues, the risk of losing prospective students to other wellknown universities can become a reality.

The overall goal of this campaign is to increase social media traffic and university
visibility.
In order to reach this goal, the campaign objective is to increase traffic on all
participating networks by 50 per cent by the end of this eight-month campaign. An
increase in social media traffic will directly correspond with an increase in traffic to
royalroads.ca, which in turn, will bring an increase to program inquiries and university
admissions.

Due to the current levels of traffic on Royal Roads social media channels, we feel this goal to
increase social media traffic by 50 per cent is easily attainable with this new, engaging campaign.

Eastern Europe
Western Europe
West Africa
Students
South Asia
South East Asia
North America
0

Figure 4. Statistics Canada: Origin/ethnicity of international and Canadian

students attending post-secondary school in Canada

Based on the evidence drawn from the research conducted, Royal Roads showcases a
diverse population of students who come from a variety of nationalities, ethnicities,
ages, and educational achievements. The universitys current enrolment and program
populace is the following (according to UniversityStudy.ca):

1,200 full-time undergraduate students were enrolled at Royal Roads

compared to the

3,190 full-time graduate students during the Fall/Autumn admissions of 2015.

After analyzing the target market in order to identify the specific audience for the social
media campaign, the following demographic trends and psychographic characteristics
were outlined:

Male and female

1835

Canadian

International students (Chinse, Japanese, and Russian)

College graduates

University graduates

Looking for a unique university experience

Passionate about the outdoors and living an active lifestyle

Environmentalists

Working professionals looking to improve qualifications in a timely manner

Prospective university students

The demographics and psychographics listed will be the primary target audience for
the social media campaign. The campaign is specifically designed to appeal to this
audience in order to attract future students, while cultivating Royal Roads social media
presence.

Royal Roads is incredibly multi-facetedfrom the enchanting campus, to the

innovative, expedited cohort learning program model, and the euphoric natural
environment surrounding the campus in beautiful Victoria, B.C.and we want to
capture it all. A 360-degree experience completely encompassing the Royal Roads
lifestyle.
Few people are aware of the universitys opportunities, or neglect to entirely recognize
what the institution offers and what the city provides. With this in mind, we want to
share the virtual experience with people all over Canada and internationally. We want
to give future and prospective students a new way to view their BA.
A NEW WAY TO VIEW YOUR BA
A New Way to View Your BA is the title of this prospective social media campaign. The
proposed campaign is a social media video series, uniquely capturing the complete
Royal Roads lifestyle. From the peacocks, the castle, and the hiking trails, to summer
music festivals, Fishermans Wharf and the resident seals; being a student at Royal
Roads isnt just educationits a lifestyle.
The campaign name can be interchangeable in order to reach a primary target
audience: masters students. For videos specifically targeting masters students, the
name will be adjusted to A New Way to View Your MA.

Figure 5. #MyRRUView Google

Cardboard booth for university fairs

To share #MyRRUView with further prospective students, an additional program will be

executed before launching the video series on social media, which will promote the
university, as well as create video footage for the series. #MyRRUView will be launched
at university recruitment fairs, strategically separating Royal Roads from other, more
traditional post-secondary competitors.
The typical university recruitment fair setup consists of an information booth and
usually some small freebies, such as branded pens and lanyards. Alongside Royal
Roads traditional information booth will be a curtained enclosure (see Figure 5).
Prospective students who enter the space will be outfitted with Google Cardboard.
Google Cardboard is the latest in cutting edge technology and blurs the lines between
what is real and what is not. Users with a viewer (or headwear) are able to see 360degree imagesincluding three-dimensional shapesand hear captured audio
through a smartphone application. Although its name is simple, Google Cardboard is
breakthrough technology into augmented or virtual reality (VR). An added bonus is that
the actual viewer only costs around $15 and can be branded with the Royal Roads
logo. More information, including a demonstration, on VR and Google Cardboard can
be found here.

With regard to the proposed solution, prospective students at the designated university
fairs wearing the headwear will be able to view any of a series of four videos created by
ADC Media. Two videos will showcase two different 360-degree views of the Royal
Roads campus. Often for out-of-towners, previewing the Colwood campus is not a
possibility, which is why we want to provide an immersive experience through VR. The
emphasis of the videos will be of Royal Roads innate uniqueness. Another video will
showcase downtown Victorias picturesque and bustling waterfront. The final video will
showcase a 360-degree classroom experience in the Learning and Innovation Centre.
Through this video series prospects should not only see, but fully experience, Royal
Roads and Vancouver Island culture.
This demonstration involves little setup and is low-cost, which can easily be
transported to university fairs abroad targeting international students where language
barriers may be present. The 360-degree videos act as a visual explainer into the
uniqueness that the university and surrounding area has to offer.
After the university fairs, 360-degree virtual footage will then be shared with a larger
audience online through the various social media platforms mentioned below. We
expect prospective students across Canada and abroad will be talking about, what is
perhaps, their first virtual experience. We will encourage people to take the
conversation online by using the hashtag, #MyRRUView. As an incentive, university
recruitment fair attendees who upload a photo of the demonstration and use this
hashtag will be entered in a draw to win their very own Google Cardboard viewer.
This campaign not only promotes Royal Roads and what the surrounding area has to
offer, but also highlights the fact that Royal Roads is a leader in adopting innovative,
life.changing technology. Ultimately, this unique learning style coupled with the
adoption of new technology is life changing. The goal of this tactic is to generate
traditional media coverage while initiating university visibility, which also doubles as
free marketing and advertising to a larger audience.
The majority of the videos in the series will be professionally filmed, but the public also
has the opportunity to share their personal videos of Royal Roads and Victoria using
the campaign hashtag, #MyRRUView to be a part of the series.

CHANNELS
Following extensive market research regarding our target audience, the following
channels were identified as the platforms with the highest traffic from our target
demographic. The following social media channels are being used to promote A New
Way to View Your BA:

YouTube. Full 360-degree videos will be shared on this channel.

Facebook. Full 360-degree videos and promotional photos of the campaign

series will be posted on this channel.

Twitter. Snippets of the full video and campaign photos will be shared on the
channel.

Instagram. Snippets of the full video and campaign photos will be shared on
the channel.

Snapchat. There will be a Royal Roads geotag filter with the campaign hashtag
#MyRRUView. This tactic is a cost-free initiative, and will promote the hashtag
amongst current students and campus visitors. The filter will also feature
peacocks, Chinese flowers, and the castle.

PROMOTING INTERNATIONALLY
In order to reach Royal Roads Universitys primary
demographic of international students, we will be pursuing
this audience on additional social media platforms.
The platforms which will be used to reach international
students are:

VK.com. Popular social media channel for Europeans.

Weibo. Popular social media channel for Chinese.

WeChat. Popular social media channel for Chinese.

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Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

Jan.

Feb.

March

Campaign
Launch
Full Length
360-videos
Video Snippets
#MYRRU Photo
Sharing
China Tour
Japan Tour
Russia Tour
Europe Tour
Maritimes Tour
Eastern
Canada Tour
Mid-West
Canada Tour
Western
Canada Tour
Campaign End

Figure 6. Campaign timeline over eight-months starting August 2016

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We will track the success of the campaign on a daily basis to make sure that we are
reaching our campaign goals. Indicators of this success will be seen through audience
engagement with #MyRRUView, and through an increased follower count, engagement
rate, likes received, and shares on all platforms.
To measure this success, we will use Hootsuite combined with Google Analytics to
help us monitor engagement patterns across all social media accounts and analyze
how the campaign is influencing traffic to royalroads.ca. These tools will allow us to
incorporate campaign tagging into the strategy to help us monitor where traffic is
coming. This data will determine which platform is making the greatest impact,
allowing us to make any adjustments to the strategy along the way. We will also add
how did you hear about us surveys to royalroads.ca to help us track the success of
the campaign through program inquiries.

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Royal Roads offers students a new view on learning, so we want to offer the world a new 360degree view on Royal Roads. By incorporating Royal Roads strengths with new technology,
this innovative campaign will capture the attention of potential students, as well as encourage
current students and staff to share their life.changing Royal Roads experience.
The beauty of Royal Roads deserves to be shared across Canada and around the world. We
believe that ACD Media and #MyRRUView can help you share the universitys unique story.

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At ACD Media, we pride ourselves in our creativity and our ability to take clients above and
beyond their online marketing needs. With over eight years of experience in bringing new
media marketing strategies to businesses all across the world, our team of social strategists
have the skills needed to help Royal Roads generate a more impactful online presence through
social media.

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WORKS CITED
McMullen, K., & Elias, A. (2011). A Changing Portrait of International Students in Canadian
Universities. Statcan.gc.ca [Website]. Retrieved 19 March 2016, from
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/2010006/article/11405-eng.htm
Netlytic. (2016). Netlytic - Social Media Text and Social Networks Analyzer. Netlytic.org
[Website]. Retrieved 19 March 2016, from https://netlytic.org
SimilarWeb. (2016). Royalroads.ca Traffic Statistics. SimilarWeb [Website]. Retrieved 19
March 2016, from https://www.similarweb.com/website/royalroads.ca#social
UniversityStudy (2016). Royal Roads University. UniversityStudy.ca [Website]. Retrieved 19
March 2016, from http://www.universitystudy.ca/canadian-universities/royal-roadsuniversity/

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 ADC MEDIA 2016

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