University wins major international award for its innovative use of digital technology to offer virtual tours of its campus accommodation and other key venues to prospective students.
The University’s Accommodation Office has won the Digital Marketing category at the Association of College and University Housing Officers – International (ACUHO-I) marketing awards in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, earlier this month. Kent was chosen for the award ahead of other high-profile institutions including the University of Georgia and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Kent won for its virtual tours that showcase the University’s award-winning student accommodation and catering outlets at both its Canterbury and Medway campus such as the Gulbenkian and Kent Sport.
The popularity of the tours with prospective students was underlined by the fact that in the month of August the virtual tours received over 81,000 page views, making it the third most popular page behind the main University homepage and the main student page.
The virtual tours, produced by specialist digital agency Revolution Viewing, not only help prospective students with their accommodation applications, but also aid engagement with the University website and decreases bounce rates.
The Accommodation Office has also launched a virtual tour stand at open days, where prospective students and their guests can take tours of the accommodation and other facilities if they are unable to see them in person in the day.
This proved especially popular at a recent open days with many visitors giving positive feedback. As a result the University intends to invest more in this area with further headsets so as many visitors as possible can use the technology in the future.