Contessa Brewer of MSNBC and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley personally congratulated Jonathan Olens on his acceptance to Syracuse University.

Olens, an incoming freshman, is among the more than 300 students accepted to the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications who were greeted with one of these personalized video messages.

‘It felt cool knowing they sent me a personal video made by two successful people in the job market I’m interested in,’ Olens said. ‘I felt, for lack of a better word, special.’

Though accepted Newhouse students first received a letter in the mail, the video replaces the congratulatory emails of previous years.The videos, produced by StarGreetz, feature SU alumni Brewer and Crowley talking about the university and Crowley acknowledging each student by name.

Eric Frankel, who studied television and radio at Newhouse, founded StarGreetz. The marketing company sells personalized e-cards, ringtones and voicemail messages featuring celebrities such as DJ Pauly D of ‘Jersey Shore’ and singer Reba McIntyre.

Newhouse staff conceived the video after Frankel, a longtime member of the Newhouse advisory board, demonstrated his technology to Newhouse Dean Lorraine Branham when Branham visited Frankel in Los Angeles, said Lynn Vanderhoek, assistant dean of Newhouse. Vanderhoek said Branham thought a personalized video message would be good for incoming students.

‘When you get a greeting like that from two alumni who could arguably be role models for Newhouse, there’s an excitement factor,’ she said.

The video helps students by exposing them to successful alumni, Vanderhoek said, including those who haven’t made a living on-screen like Brewer has. Crowley had never used a teleprompter before he went to the MSNBC studios in New York City to film the video, Vanderhoek said.

No other schools at SU are looking into using the technology yet, but personalized videos are the future of college admissions across America, Vanderhoek said.

‘Any way to cut through the clutter and get attention is fair game for academic recruiters,’ she said.

Olens, the incoming freshman who plans to major in broadcast and digital journalism, said the video increased his interest in coming to SU. Olens will attend classes at SU in July as part of the SummerStart program.

That reaction is exactly what StarGreetz hoped for, said Maury Leitner, the company’s vice president of content and marketing.

‘This is the first time a big brand can look a consumer in the eye and speak to them,’ Leitner said. ‘We feel it’s part of the magic that StarGreetz delivers.’

geclarke@syr.edu

Published on June 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm