The Problem

After a lengthy hiatus on in-person events and limited opportunities to visit campus, prospective students rely more than ever on self-serve digital resources during their school search. Seneca College identified an opportunity to offer students a more human virtual visit. Peter Freer remarks, "one of our goals in reaching and engaging prospective students in Canada and abroad is to present Seneca’s unique academic and student experiences."

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The Process

To put a fresh spin on their virtual tours in time for Summer Open House, Seneca set out to add audio narration into four of their campus virtual tours, to create an experience that mirrored an on-campus tour. Seneca collaborated with Circuit Virtual Tours' Customer Success team on the implementation of Audio Guide. Over the course of the next two months, the Circuit team coordinated copywriting, voice actor selection, recording, updating tours, and launch. Audio tours are possible without rewriting scripts, but Seneca sought to be more student-centric in the delivery, knowing it would be narrated in a student's voice.

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The Results

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After relaunching the new audio tours, Seneca's rolled them out in time for their Open House. Peter shared the impact of the newly launched tours, saying, "Audio Guide added the human voice to the virtual experience, engaging visitors on another sensory level. [It] elevated a passive experience to one that inspires [students] and brings the spaces to life within the virtual realm."

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As far as outcomes go, Seneca had set expectations to "lift the time spent on each tour, improve comprehension of the academic offering as well as the full student experience available across our campuses." Was Audio Guide successful in reaching those goals?

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After two months in market, the analytics were gathered, and the results blew everyone away:

- Session duration increased by 74%
- Pages per session increased by 5%
- Time on page increased by 63%

Visitors taking an Audio Guide tour engage for 74% longer than those who opted for no audio! When given the choice to proceed with audio on or not, the 'audio on' group outnumbers the 'audio off" group, with 2 out of every 3 visitors taking audio tours. This speaks to strong uptake for audio tours.

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"Students can imagine themselves on the campus and the Audio Guide keeps engagement high."

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It's really encouraging to see these kind of results, and shows us that enriching an experience with audio is a sure way to drive more engagement.

Mic drop!