Printed Instagram: The Olivet Viewbook

Colleges, universities and private K12 schools typically use a viewbook as the main printed marketing piece. In this video, I highlight a viewbook I received from Olivet Nazarene University – it’s the perfect example of what should be done to attract Generation Z.

Video Blog Transcript

I wanted to take a quick moment. I received something in the mail the other day that I wanted to show you. I think it’s brilliant.

This is the viewbook for Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois. And I got this in the mail…I have been put on some lists through Christian College Connector and one thing that I really think is pretty amazing about this is that if you start looking at it, we have, what 12 words there. The entire viewbook is like what my wife coined the term “printed Instagram.” So this is like telling the story of Olivet just through gorgeous pictures.

And so, we go through probably 20 pages of these different pictures, then you get to another one: “The questions isn’t where should I go to college, but rather who should I do my life with?”
What a powerful statement! And at the very, very back, you have these keywords, “I can’t believe the Chicago Bears practice on our campus” all kind of quotes and different things about them. “We travel to different countries, including France, Switzerland, India and Russia.” So just consuming this gives you a lot of information about the college.

But then on the very last page, you have one spread here: it has Olivet at a Glance, you know, your students, the admissions, alumni, ac academics, all the information you would want. And then just a list of the Areas of Study.

What a great job. Some stats down here. But, again, very, very good. And this is the kind of viewbook that is going to be picked up and looked at and left on the counter in the kitchen. And that is really what you want. You want something that is going to be looked at and understood.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, you could not write the kind of content that is in this. I mean, look at this: just the idea of being able to show off the student center with this rock wall. That tells me a lot about their school without even getting into the facts and details of what it is.

Well done, Olivet! A good example for everyone to follow.

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