Disney/Pixar continues to amaze me with their ability to create fictitious worlds that seem real. The amount of time that their design team spent researching college websites to create the new Monsters University site is considerable. This fictional website is better than many real college websites. Attention to detail is amazing. Real institutions can learn a great deal from the Monsters University site. Even without a monster budget (ha ha) like Disney your institution can emulate the best of this site to enhance viewers' experience with your website.
Why I love this website (and marketing campaign)
1. The videos are great. Students love videos. In this YouTube generation videos are a means of communication and information gathering. Watching a video is far more compelling than reading printed facts. The Monsters U. website includes some short meaningful videos-- the kind of videos that would appeal to the student demographic.
2. The website features a uniform design theme. Clearly "every" department agreed to comply with one design style. The result is a clear, uniform, visually appealing graphic design. This can be harder to achieve in the "real world" where various institutional departments vie for webspace and often design consistency is lost.
3. Monsters University is clear about its identity and niche. Monsters U. isn't trying to be something it's not. I know it's not a real place, but it's evident in the website that Monsters U. has embraced its niche. The webdesigners clearly defined the strengths of the university and it is obvious that Monsters U. knows what it is and isn't trying to be something else. Real institutions should learn from this. Marketing departments and key institutional personnel should define the strengths of the institution in an honest and constructive way. Once the institutional strengths have been defined, this information can be conveyed in a straightforward, effective way. Self-awareness is key in successful marketing. Monsters U. has great self-awareness.
4. International student services has its own easy to find page. Often I get frustrated as I try to find the international student services page on college and university websites. And if I get frustrated as a native speaker with a considerable knowledge of higher education and technology, imagine what it's like for an international student trying to find similar information. The Monsters U. site recognizes the importance of international student recruitment. The one thing that could have been improved upon in this section would be to have the international student services page in local languages. I'm not sure how the Monsters U. folks would have executed that but it might have been great fun for them!
5. @MonstersU actively supports the webpage efforts. The MonstersU Twitter feed has over 8000 followers currently. Regular posts update followers about campus events, activities and anything else the Tweet Master wants to publicize. A well managed Twitter account can be a useful marketing tool alongside a successful website. To make the marketing campaign even more effective, the Monsters U Tweet Master should consider posting more often.
6. The Monsters University Facebook page is highly effective. It features daily posts that engage and connect the nearly 400,000 Facebook users who have liked the page. Social media-- Facebook and Twitter-- support the efforts of the Monsters U website. The Facebook and Twitter posts frequently redirect followers to the website. The takeaway message for real university marketing departments is that Facebook and Twitter matter. Use these free social media tools to augment successful websites.
Monsters U. has a budget that many colleges could only dream of having. However, there are many simple and effective ways to emulate the success of the Monsters U. website for use with your own marketing campaign.
Who wouldn't want to be Sully's roommate?!
