Rutgers University

Overview

FormatPage Grabber

PlatformDesktop + Mobile

EngineGreenSock

AgencyUndertone

Campus tour ad for Rutgers University targeting prospective students during admissions season. Aerial campus photography, academic program cards with rankings, student life galleries, and multi-action enrollment CTAs timed to application deadlines.

Higher education campaigns are unusual. Prospective students actually want the content, so the engineering serves genuine information, not just impressions.

Context

University advertising is one of the few verticals where the audience is genuinely interested in what you're showing them. That changed the engineering approach. Instead of optimizing for attention capture, I optimized for information density. The program cards needed to carry real content (rankings, department highlights, faculty names), more than pretty photography. The multi-action CTA system was the most important piece. Admissions offices care deeply about attribution at each funnel stage, so "Apply Now," "Schedule a Visit," and "Request Info" each carried separate click IDs that fed back into the university's enrollment analytics. The institutional pacing was a deliberate design choice, slower GreenSock transitions with Quart.easeOut instead of the snappier Back.easeOut I'd use for a retail brand. Universities need to feel stable and authoritative rather than energetic.

How It Works

~3s

Campus

Aerial campus photography fills the viewport. Rutgers scarlet branding and university name animate in with institutional gravitas.

Interactive

Programs

Academic program cards: engineering, business, arts & sciences. Each card shows department highlights, rankings, and featured faculty.

Auto-cycle

Life

Student life gallery: campus events, athletics, dorm life, dining. Photos cycle with short captions that read as candid.

End State

Apply

Enrollment CTAs: "Apply Now," "Schedule a Visit," "Request Info." Each tracked with unique attribution for the admissions funnel.

Engineering

Campus Tour

Panoramic campus photography with GreenSock parallax-style scrolling. Aerial and ground-level shots alternate to build spatial understanding.

Program Cards

Department-specific content cards with rankings, highlights, and featured imagery. Expandable on tap for additional detail.

Life Gallery

Auto-cycling student life photography with captions. Images sourced from actual campus life rather than stock, because authenticity matters for prospective students.

Admissions CTAs

Multi-action CTA system: Apply, Visit, Info Request. Each action represents a different admissions funnel stage and is tracked independently.

Engineering Decisions

Not every prospective student is ready to apply. "Schedule a Visit" and "Request Info" capture earlier-funnel interest that a single "Apply" would lose.

Gen Z detects stock photography instantly. Real campus photos, slightly imperfect and genuinely diverse, build trust better than staged shoots.

Video tours are passive and long. Interactive program cards let students immediately explore what they care about, engineering, business, or arts, in seconds.

Universities need to feel authoritative and stable. Fast-cut montages feel like entertainment ads. Measured transitions signal "serious institution."