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Campus View Books
By Thomas F.
Duetsch
Associate Director for Marketing/Conferences
Virginia Tech &
Holli G. Drewry
Art Director
Virginia Tech
For many schools, a viewbook is often that first "hook" which entices prospective students to give consideration to a housing/dining program. Dollar for dollar, viewbooks often offer a great return on your investment if just a few students choose your institution and the residence halls that would not have normally done so.
Whether you are looking to revise your current viewbook or thinking about creating one for the first time, the following three sections may help. Section one mentions the costs involved in creating a four-color, 8.5" x 11" viewbook. Section two covers research we conducted on common elements found in viewbooks. Finally, section three briefly mentions a suggested timeline for putting together your viewbook.
COST:
So what does it costs to create a viewbook? They are generally not cheap, but remember that the more you print, the less expensive it will be per piece. As you can see from the chart below (a real estimate provided by a university print shop), unless you are choosing a minimum quantity of 5,000 viewbooks, they are extremely expensive and may not be cost effective. Part of the reason for this is that there are significant costs involved in the printing process, such as color separations (scans and film), laminated proofs, ink jet or dye sublimation proofs. The setup time and materials for a printing job are very costly whether you do 100 or 10,000 so the more you print, the lower your cost per piece.
In addition, many schools often do not consider the huge time and cost investment that occurs in putting a 4-color viewbook together. Setting up photo shoots, paying for professional photographers (strongly recommended), writing and revising text, and design fees if applicable are all hidden costs that are rarely taken into account.
Schools that require incoming students to live on campus may not have a need for an expensive viewbook. With a captive audience already in place, it may make more sense to partner with the admissions department to make sure your program is prominently and creatively displayed in the university viewbook. For schools in this category that want to market their program beyond the Admissions office, a less expensive and smaller size viewbook may do just the trick.
RESEARCH:
It is important to remember that there is no one perfect design for a viewbook. Each institution has their own target population and best knows how to market to that group. In an effort to find commonalities among institutions, we looked at 19 different schools, some small (less than 4000 living on campus), some medium (4000-7000), and some large (more than 7000). In reading through the viewbooks, we were able to identify a number of common categories. These categories were subgrouped by topic and sample images from the viewbooks were scanned into a PowerPoint presentation. The percentage of small schools, medium schools, and large schools that contained this feature in their viewbook was also determined. The categories and topic areas can be found below.
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Building Information
Student-related Information
Housing/Res. Life Information
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Dining Information
University Information
Application Information
Special Features
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TIME LINE:
If you decide that a four-color viewbook is a viable option for your program, you may be wondering about the timeline for putting a viewbook together and also what other schools are putting in their viewbook. You can be assured that it is not a short process. Here is our suggested time line for creating your viewbook.
Month One: Advertise to current freshmen soliciting their involvement in focus groups. Conduct at least two focus groups with a diverse group of students to determine what the primary selling points of your program are in their eyes and what information should be included that would help a prospective student in making a decision to live on campus. Talk to management staff within your own department and to others that market your university to gain their input as well.
Month Two: Draft text for your publication, determining the key points that must be included as well as information that it would be nice to include if space permits. Share this information with colleagues, supervisors, and students, obtaining their perspective and changes. Meet with design staff to gain their input on the approximate number of pages/spreads for your publication and to obtain initial estimates.
Month Three: Determine what visuals you need in your publication. Work with university relations and photographic services offices to see what professional photos have already been taken and can be used in your publication. Determine whether you need to have student models (video services usually has a good pool of candidates) and begin the recruitment process if necessary. Determine what other shots are needed. Work with staff to determine good venues (for example, student rooms, lounges) for taking pictures and work to schedule those. Coordinate photo shoots. Finalize your text.
Month Four: Provide text and images and ideas for how you want your publication to look to design staff. Be patient while they do their thing.
Month Five: Receive drafts and continue to make suggested changes. Once all is approved and ready to go, send to printer. Receive color proofs for final approval before everything goes to the press.
Month Six: After two to three weeks at the printer for printing, folding, and stapling, you should have them back and be ready to go!