IU-Tube Follies

As a new marketing ploy, IU recently created a series of videos titled “Hello, My Name Is Indiana University” and broadcast them over YouTube. These videos, which feature real IU students, are an attempt to “put a face on the University” and attract potential students in a new way.\nSadly, the videos do nothing more than show two random minutes of an IU student’s life and are basically ineffective. One video features a female student rambling on about her band and why they don’t want to become the next Panic! At The Disco. Good for them – they’re not sellouts – but what does this really have to do with IU?\nAnother depicts a male student hanging out with his buddies while he talks about eating dinner with his female neighbors. Awesome – this guy’s crew grills hamburgers a couple of times each week, but again, there is no real mention of the University \nThe problem is that depicting the students away from the classroom or campus doesn’t leave much to connect them to IU. The videos aren’t much more than random college students talking about their lives and could be taking place anywhere.\nWhile some of the entries have portions of information that could be valuable to prospective students – including bits about the Little 500 or quality student-professor relationships – it’s not enough. The personalized style is supposed to make it easier for viewers to relate to the students, but it is not successful in conveying a direct message about IU. Moreover, the spots wait until the very end to mention IU at all. During the more boring videos, it’s difficult to even make it to the quirky “Hello, My Name Is Indiana University” name tag, so it’s plausible that those who stumble upon the videos might not even know that IU is associated with them at all. \nObviously, the Internet and YouTube are major promotional avenues in this day and age, but there must be a better way to get out the word. With little publicity about these videos aside from a recent Indiana Daily Student story, it seems like a waste of time and resources to create pieces hoping that people happen to stumble upon them in between searching for Britney’s VMA performance and “Tourette’s Guy.” \nAnd based on the number of views for each video, it seems that not many people are doing much stumbling. Only one video has more than 1,000 views, and most have had less than 300 since they were added this summer. \nThese videos are a step in the right direction to reaching a different audience with alternative forms of advertising and marketing, but ultimately, the University’s first venture into the YouTube world is a failure. Nothing about the clips captures the true definition of IU or its students. Why not show scenes from a great IU class like Music of the Beatles or perhaps scenes from a typical afternoon at everyone’s favorite college newspaper? Maybe the lack of positive response to these videos will push IU recruiters to come up with something more creative that will put YouTube and other new media to better use.