In this case study, we explore how Centennial College leveraged Calls to Action (CTAs) throughout their virtual tour to successfully promote their Summer Open House. By strategically placing CTAs across multiple pages of the tour, Centennial captured valuable leads, accounting for 25.5% of their overall CTA success events, and drove engaged visitors to their registration page. Read on to discover how Circuit virtual tours can be an effective tool for promoting your events.

The Problem Centennial Set Out to Solve

It can be difficult to engage students over the summer months, and that's the time when student interest can wane and result in melt. In 2024, Centennial College, a leading community college in the Greater Toronto Area, launched their Summer Open House to combat this challenge. Centennial's Summer Open House aimed to attract current high school students and recent graduates on a study break prior to applications opening up. The event offered hands-on, demonstration-based sessions, giving potential students a chance to explore Centennial in a less hectic, post-academic setting. With a new event, raising awareness would be critical to it's success.

How Circuit Calls to Action (CTAs) Were Leveraged

To maximize awareness for this new event, Centennial turned to Circuit Virtual Tours, utilizing the platform to reach a broader audience and capture Summer Open House registrations from visitors who may have discovered the tour through independent channels, outside of the college's other marketing efforts for the event.

Centennial used three Calls to Action (CTAs) in their virtual tour to promote their event:

• One Timed CTA: A Timed Notice CTA pop-up appeared after the third scene, providing details about the Open House and linking directly to the registration page.

• Two Button CTAs: Static Button CTAs were placed on the homepage and throughout the tour, linking to the registration page as well.

This approach used a proactive notification upon entry and a passive button to highlight the Open House, catering to visitors eager to engage immediately as well as those whose interest grows after exploring the content.

Chris Randall, Centennial’s On-Campus Engagement, Student Recruitment Specialist, said his strategy was to “keep it simple. Have the same CTA show up in multiple locations so that as visitors progress through the tour, they have more buy in to register for the event.”

The Results

Running from June 17 to July 22, these CTAs notified 675 visitors about the Summer Open House and drove a 7.4% click through rate to the event page. The timed CTA--which offered essential event details to raise awareness of the event--achieved a 50% click-through rate to the event page. Button CTAs placed on the site accounted for the other 50%. Together, these two tactics show the success of leveraging Circuit's CTA capabilities to spread awareness and drive registrations.

The Centennial Team reported the event was a success, with a 31% increase in registrations from the year prior. With new scheduling functionality in Circuit, CTAs for future events will be even easier for editors to schedule go-live and take-down dates in advance, ensuring that virtual visits continue to support in-person ones.

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