HIGHTSTOWN: Peddie featured on online tour program

By Audrey Levine, Packet Group
    The dull roar of traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike isn’t usually a feature touted by educators trying to interest prospective students.
    But one official at the Peddie School in Hightstown discussed the noise in a promotional video produced for a new program called InterAct, designed to provide students or company clients a tour of a college, high school or business campus online.
    “We developed InterACT as a cutting-edge online video tour application that not only engages and interacts with online visitors, but also effectively presents core messaging and values,” said Paxton Galvanek, CEO of Galvanek & Wahl Advertising Agency on South Main Street in Manville and creator of the program. “The goal is to help schools and campus-based businesses interact and engage with their potential students and customers through an interactive online tour platform using state-of-the-art video production and creative treatments.”
    Mr. Galvanek said he developed the program based on his own background in video and film.
    “I combine my experience with video production with my passion for technology and the World Wide Web to create a unique product that can take a static Web site and truly engage visitors,” he said.
    The team from Galvanek & Wahl designs the creative concept, handles casting, handles pre-production, shoots all video and puts the entire site together, among other components. The sites include video segments with students or workers at the campuses, discussing how they are involved in the specific community.
    The company gave the program its first try when it partnered with the Peddie School to create a virtual map of the private board school campus for students considering submitting an application.
    “We were looking for somebody to create a more interactive experience (for the Web site),” said Sean Casey, director of marketing and communications for Peddie. “We looked at the work of Galvanek & Wahl and thought they came up with a great product.”
    Mr. Casey said the school was looking for a way to combine video with an online presence to provide a wide range of information about the school’s academics, campus life, theater, athletics, music program and community, among other sections.
    “We wanted to combine skills of video with an online presence,” he said. “Online users want more control.”
    According to Mr. Galvanek, his company worked with the school to identify students who could participate in the tour and the different areas to be covered.
    “We worked closely with Peddie to identify students who were well-spoken or excelled in different areas,” he said. “The project started with five interactive locations, but as we discussed more and more about the Peddie value and experience, we realized that we needed more establishing shots and we increased it to nine areas.”
    The site allows visitors to click on one of the different categories before being brought to another screen with a set of subcategories. Clicking on any of those allows the visitor to see a video featuring actual students talking about their experiences at the school.
    In total, Mr. Galvanek said, the Peddie School tour includes 37 interactive video clips, with students discussing their own experiences and involvement in the community.
    “People want to see real people,” Mr. Casey said. “We selected a wide range of the student body. We were very impressed with how thoughtful and able our kids were.”
    The goal, Mr. Galvanek said, was to make sure the site captured as much of what Peddie has to offer as possible.
    “Peddie was so pleased with the final product that they have built the interactive tour into the entire Web site by placing a graphic and link on the top left banner of all pages,” he said.
    Since the tour became active at the end of November, Mr. Casey said, there have been about 3,300 visitors, each spending about five minutes per visit going through the tour.
    “There has been a great early response to it,” he said.
    In addition to the response from prospective students, Mr. Casey said the tour was recently chosen by Bob Johnson Consulting, a marketing firm based in Michigan, as the link of the week for Jan. 23. Mr. Casey said the company usually only recognizes colleges and universities, not high schools.
    Currently, Mr. Galvanek said, the company is in discussions with other schools in New Jersey and North Carolina – the two states where his company is based – to create more InterAct sites, but has not yet finalized any plans.
    “We are looking to work with as many schools and campus-based businesses (as possible) over the upcoming year,” he said.
    Mr. Galvanek said the project is very advantageous to schools and businesses because it is interactive and allows people all over the country to experience the campus itself.
    “The advantage of InterAct is that it’s completely scalable so smaller schools and campus-based businesses can take advantage of the product, or larger campus-based establishments can build a huge interactive online tour,” he said. The product is entirely personalized for each school so it will look completely different for each new client, utilizing unique branding, campus and creative treatments.”
    To view the interactive tour, visit the Peddie School Web site at peddie.org.
    For more information on InterACT, visit the Galvanek & Wahl Web site at gwadagency.com, or call the company at 908-722-3534.