2019 Commencement Wrap-Up

Another commencement season has come and gone. As always, time of year presents many opportunities to create content that celebrates such an exciting time in the lives of our graduating Rams.

Here’s a wrap-up of coverage from our team.

Honoring Our Outstanding Grads

Each semester, our Public Relations team does an incredible job of telling the stories of a few outstanding graduates earning their degrees. Each student receives an individual write-up, and we link to the central article through a social post anchored by a video. Our strategy lately has been to glean from the full individual articles and create a video highlight using Animoto that aims to capture interest and then drive traffic to our main news site, Source.

See the Outstanding Grads video here.

Video Project

Commencement, being the pinnacle of the college lifecycle, is a big deal and warrants a big project. We tossed around some ideas and eventually landed on the concept of putting together a video with a fun, celebratory vibe to capture the mood of what it feels like to graduate. We filmed the video in 1080p / 120fps so that we could slow down the footage and really hone in on the subtleties (facial expressions, confetti, moving objects) that would illustrate the fun vibe we were aiming to create.

Live Coverage

Each year, our team attends one commencement ceremony in order to cover the event in real-time. We do this because it offers a unique glimpse into the raw moments of the important day graduates have imagined since day one of their college experience. This content is valued by various demographics: future graduates see themselves someday walking across the same stage; current students have memories captured from the big day; and alumni/parents are able to reminisce and feel enormous amounts of Ram Pride.

Dr. Frank’s Final Commencement Speech

A unique part of over social coverage this season was due to the fact that Dr. Tony Frank is retiring from his position as CSU President. Dr. Frank is known as being an eloquent public speaker, and his speeches tend to resonate strongly. With that being said, his final commencement speech was bound to be powerful, and we knew people would be curious to hear what he said. The emotional aspect of the speech being his final one added an extra element that appealed to people across CSU platforms.

View Dr. Tony Frank’s final commencement speech here.

Photo Album Wrap-UpStudents pose on the Oval with their pets

Rounding out our commencement coverage was a photo album of scenes from the weekend. Posts such as this tend to generate a lot of clicks and time spent viewing content for us, and it’s a wonderful way to draw users in as they scroll through the photos looking for someone or something the recognize, occasionally tagging people in their own personal networks who happen to be featured in the album.

View the Class of 2019 photo album here.

Related: 6 Tips to Up Your Commencement Game