Virtual Open Day and Applicant Hub
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has always been progressive, and like us, calls Norwich home. Since 2019, we’ve partnered to create cutting-edge virtual experiences that support student recruitment worldwide. It began with transforming UEA’s UCAS fair stand into an AR-enabled experience, allowing visitors to explore 360° videos, 3D models, and hidden Easter Eggs through interactive content. We then built an AR app for the Outreach team, engaging younger audiences. When the pandemic halted in-person open days, we developed a virtual events platform – now a multi-dimensional tool that gives students a digital gateway into UEA life.
The challenge
The first virtual open day platform for UEA was created as an urgent response to Covid restrictions, offering students worldwide a digital window into university life when travel was impossible. The results were remarkable: visitor numbers rose by 131%, with significant international engagement. Unlike a physical open day, the platform remained accessible after the event, allowing students to return and explore content at their own pace. Its success sparked new ideas – how could we expand and adapt this approach across the recruitment journey?
The following year, UEA asked us to build an immersive Applicant Day platform, giving offer-holders the chance to connect more deeply with their potential future home. By 2023, these temporary solutions evolved into a comprehensive, permanent virtual event platform – now central to UEA’s hybrid recruitment strategy. This flexible tool delivers tailored experiences for undergraduates, postgraduates, and applicants alike, nationally and internationally, ensuring students can explore UEA in engaging and meaningful ways for years to come.
The process
Technology is only as effective as the content within it – so alongside building UEA’s virtual platform, we created a rich library of bespoke experiences. This includes 360° videos of the campus and Norwich, interactive 2D and 360° media showcasing student life, and Matterport tours of UEA’s wide range of facilities. We also produced guided video tours of accommodation, more than 50 short academic talks covering every subject, quiz content to help students find their perfect living space, and drone footage offering a unique bird’s eye view of campus life and the surrounding area.
To keep everything current, we designed a flexible CMS system that allows UEA’s team to update content and capture valuable data with ease. Beyond the platform, we’ve supported the university with promotional videos, social media teasers, high-quality 3D assets, and even TikTok filters – ensuring their outreach remains engaging, interactive, and relevant. Together, this blend of technology and content has created a dynamic and immersive digital environment, enabling prospective students worldwide to explore UEA in ways that are both informative and inspiring.
The outcome
By personalising user journeys, the UEA event hub builds a 360° view of each prospective student. Integrated with Salesforce, it enables hyper-personalised engagement across physical and digital touchpoints – driving significant improvements in conversion rates. Within its first year, it exceeded every recruitment target. The impact speaks for itself: the 2023 Virtual Applicant Hub attracted 2,334 users, with 62% of home and 50% of international visitors going firm before results day (well above the 40% target). For many, it was their only connection with UEA – 56% had never visited campus, yet 38% of them still went firm. In 2024, the Undergraduate Virtual Open Day achieved a 41% conversion rate (target: 40%), while the Postgraduate Virtual Open Day hit 52% (target: 40%). Together, these events engaged thousands of students, many from overseas, who otherwise couldn’t experience UEA in person.
This hybrid approach, blending digital with on-campus activity, has become a cornerstone of UEA’s recruitment strategy – and was recognised nationally with a “Highly Commended” award at the 2024 Heist Awards.
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