NEW YORK: CollegeClickTV.com, a Web site featuring video tours of about 200 universities that launched on November 3, is conducting an outreach campaign that targets parents, students, and the outlets they turn to for college information.
Ericho Communications, whose president, Eric Yaverbaum is a partner in the venture, is pitching radio, consumer publications, media and marketing trade titles, as well as blogs that cover individual colleges, to promote the Web site and a survey of college students the site conducted prior to the November 4 presidential election. The effort is also pitching a series of university-specific ads as stories in themselves, said agency president Yaverbaum, who added that a digital ad featuring Penn State University has spread virally to more than 100,000 consumers.
CollegeClickTV.com's video content will also appear on new sections of the US News & World Report and CliffsNotes Web sites. CollegeClickTV.com will also feature a “test prep” button that links to content from The Princeton Review.
The PR campaign, which has a budget of about $150,000, also emphasizes that the Web site can be used as a cost-cutting measure because it can diminish money spent on college visits, added Yaverbaum.
“If you want to go to a campus with a college-bound child, you also have to pay for travel – and now you don't have to. You can really cull down the list of schools you want to go to,” he said.
Glenn Pere, CEO and chief creative officer at advertising firm Pere Partnership, is also a partner in CollegeClickTV.com, and created the digital and print ads for the campaign.
