At some point in your life, you have probably dreaded the prospect of attending yet another university recruitment event on behalf of your college and giving out pages and pages of brochures and handouts. There is usually a lot of money and effort involved in these events with very little ROI. Each year, businesses spend tons of money and resources on networking events. In fact, a SimpsonScarborough survey showed that institutions spend between $429 and $623 per enrolled student, per year, on marketing. This money is usually spent on space, deliverables, and employee accommodations, and compared to all these dollars spent, there’s a relatively limited value for the institution. But with this 10 cent AR business card you can make your connections memorable and successful with a much higher ROI. These cards enhance traditional 2D printed cards, allowing you to create a digital 3D experience that displays on and around your physical card, launching directly from a QR code and a smartphone camera. Think Snapchat filters, now make that a card!
The dilemma:
In addition to the enormous expenditures of a marketing conference, attendance at these events averages at 1500 students, a number that was rendered much lower by the Covid pandemic. This makes it really hard for a single university to stand out among all of these other institutions. Yet, higher ed institutions are compelled to show face at these events since their competitors are there. In other words, conferences and other forms of networking events are usually expensive, exhausting, boring, long and it’s really hard for one institution to stand out among all the other competitors without something to make them memorable and therefore achieve a high ROI that outweighs the hassle of the event. How then, can a small investment in Augmented Reality smart cards and products tangibly enhance this experience?
What Do We Mean By AR Cards:
Although an AR Card looks and feels just like a traditional printed card, the magic begins when a viewer scans the QR code on the back of the card using a smartphone camera, their device will launch a digital 3D experience that displays text, links, media, or whatever else you want, hovering on or around your physical card. The viewer can move or tilt the card around, and the projection will move with your card because their phone will visualize your business card’s location and position – like this AR card for Fordham University.
Make your institution stand out
When you’re investing in a conference, your biggest enemy is forgettability: students will go home with over 100 different brochures and booklets that will just compile and collect dust. With the average person retaining only about 5-7 items in their short-term memory before they get replaced with the very next thing they’re introduced to, chances are they forgot about your university before they forgot what they had for lunch! However, you can make your university stand out for a small price with our interactive brochures in the form of AR cards that will impress your students with customized menus and personalized greetings and make your card more memorable than the boring, traditional cards. According to a study conducted by a UK agency on the neurological and brand impact of AR, AR increases ad recall by a whopping 70%, almost doubling your chances of being remembered.
Save on printing
A 2019 study has found that approximately 10 percent of a school's annual budget is spent on printing, and the average school spends about $60, 000 on paper, ink and toner each month. With printing costs making up a large portion of school budgets, many budget-conscious school districts are looking for ways to reduce costs. AR Cards can simplify these costs by reducing the printable material from over 50 8.5” x 11” pages to a simple 3.5" x 2.0" card that is sized less but says much more with printing cost that would come to about %1 of the 50 page-handout!
Simple design that’s easy to use
With our AR cards, your students are able to add all of your contact information with one tap. By scanning the QR Code on the back of the card, users can tap on the menu and add a contact card that includes a phone number, email, etc. This way, calling your number or sending you an email is only one tap away, so you don’t have to worry about typos when they copy your info or any of that jazz!
Forget about space limits
Since the size of a standard business card is 3.5" x 2.0", you can only fit so much information there while keeping it neat and professional-looking. With the AR cards, however, you can forget about the limits! You have the option to add literally anything you’d like, from all kinds of information that would require pages and pages of printing, an interactive video, or even an interactive tour of your university!
Make your elevator pitch to-go
An elevator pitch is extremely important when introducing your institution to a new prospective student because it demonstrates your educational capacity and other benefits. But with so many people and so little time, it’s hard to remember names, let alone an entire spiel. AR cards allow you to add a video introduction or a well-honed elevator pitch about your university that your prospective students will have access to wherever they are. Whether it’s a talking introduction, photo gallery, or elevator pitch, your client will have it to-go!
Your handouts are among the most important marketing materials that represent your institution, and it serves as a physical reminder of the first impression made by your prospective student. But you can do much more than that – by adopting AR cards and material, you’re one QR code scan away from bedazzling your students with a transformative experience that will make you memorable and significantly increase your ROI on your next college student recruitment event, and take your university to the next level.