THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!
From the 9th Annual Shorty Awards

AIU Stories

Audience Honor in Education

Objectives

Create an authentic, high-impact message that will break through the modern media clutter as well as help American InterContinental University (AIU) stand out in the online higher-education vertical, in which most brands have moved to similar messaging that makes it hard for consumers to distinguish among the various universities.

At AIU, our alumni are the window to who we are and what we do. They are our story. How do we tell that story in a true and authentic way to help us reach and impact prospective students?

Strategy and Execution

Today's audiences want to be inspired, not "messaged." Through documentary films highlighting the backgrounds and success stories of real AIU alumni, we can create materials that are relatable, evoke emotion, and let viewers see what's possible through education (and through AIU). Through these, we can empower our audience to never stop learning.

To do this, we looked for three real AIU alumni whose personal experiences could reflect the motivations, goals and challenges of both current and future students. The films were leveraged in a cross-channel campaign that included TV spots, a microsite, email marketing, display advertising and social media to amplify AIU's message. The delivery of these success stories captures their very personal experiences as well as how the unique combination of personalized online learning technologies and support from faculty and staff at AIU contributed to their success, all honing in on the key message: "When you commit to earning your degree, AIU commits to you".

Results

The AIU stories have received over a million views and have been shared on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter by the Alumni who were proud to share their AIU stories. Here's a breakdown of the AIU Stories campaign results:

- 1,000,000 video views

- 375,000 website visits

- 1min44s average time spent on site

- 12,000,000 impressions

Media

Video for AIU Stories

Entrant Company / Organization Name

American InterContinental University

Link

Entry Credits