College of the Canyons is a public community college in Santa Clarita California that has grown from several hundred students to serving more than 20,000 students each semester. But with such a large, fast-moving student population, it became difficult to capture their attention with traditional communication methods.
“We recognized early on that digital signage was a necessary communications tool. Very quickly it became apparent that centralized ownership was essential to ensure long term success.”
-Hsiawen Hull, College of the Canyons
Campus initiatives communicated through email were being ignored. Fliers and posters quickly became outdated white noise. Prior to Industry Weapon, the college had some form of digital signage for the last 10-12 years. The campaigns were produced in Powerpoint and required a tedious amount of labor to upload and broadcast.
Without a gatekeeper for standards, communications felt disjointed and resulted in outdated content and disengaged viewers. Their old signage solution did not house a centralized structure to see what information was distributed, thus old messaging was often displayed on the screens.
Early attempts to use digital communications platforms, like free signage software, required a ton of end-user labor- defeating the purpose of scaling the medium to all departments. At another point, they invested in an expensive solution from an Industry Weapon competitor, but the software platform was more confusing than the free version.
College of the Canyons knew they needed an easy to update solution to cut through the noise and effectively communicate with students through ways they are used to consuming information. They found Industry Weapon who provided a plan for centralized student and faculty communications.
Frequent content updates, along with the injection of socially relevant content, keep eyes on the screens. When surveyed, a large number of the students said they attended an event after being made aware of it through signage messaging.
The system must be simple to manage and flexible enough to handle big projects. Industry Weapon created an intuitive wayfinding experience couple with day-to-day updates from departments to keep students informed.
Unlimited training resources and support are critical to ensuring that the program is a success. Departments now have a choice between managing their own screen, as Industry Weapon is always available to train and troubleshoot new users, or becoming part of the overarching campus campaign.
