Education and edtech strategies, from AR/VR and interactive digital experiences to how they conceptualize personalization, can help other industries connect with Gen Z. Many colleges have mastered the marketing listings and integrate technology in ways that today's creative and marketing teams can learn from . The University of Chicago used innovative storytelling to create an alternate reality game that engaged the incoming class over the past summer, leading up to buy email list enrollment and their first weeks on campus. It helped students get up to speed, learn about the campus layout, meet each other, and feel an emotional connection to UChicago.
The story of an ancient secret society on campus blended intrigue and brand relevance in a way that matched users' imaginations and engaged their sense of connection. Consider this quick shot captured by Wired , profiling the orientation app: "To complete buy email list their initiation and become full members of PS, the Squids, along with all other members of the class of over 1,800 of 2021, were asked to spend their first week on campus finding 121 objects that would help them activate the Ruun, a kind of supercomputer capable of determining the Parasite's location. But there was no PS, no Parasite, no Ruun, at least not at first. It was elaborate fiction:
The students were playing an alternate reality game." How it works? As Wired describes it, "An alternate reality game is, more or less, exactly what it sounds like: a constructed world with a fictional story that overlays the 'real' world, challenging players to investigate mysteries, solve puzzles and communicate with in-game characters (who do not identify themselves as such).People who arrive at the entrance to this new world ("rabbit holes") are invited to wonder what is buy email list going on , if real, and to actively push against the boundaries set by the architects of the game. The best alternate reality games manage to blur the lines between life and play.”In many ways, through this storytelling-driven engagement effort, the University of Chicago has managed to create exactly what Gen Z appeals to: a meaningful experience.