PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY
300 students come together to make graduation history.
Project
Web design, Copywriting, Design, Social Media, SEO
Client
Phillips Exeter Academy is a highly selective, coeducational independent school for boarding and day students. Located in Exeter, New Hampshire, it is one of the oldest secondary schools in the United States. Due to the sudden effects of COVID-19, an in-person graduation in 2020 was not an option. PEA came to Saltwater with a challenge: create an interactive digital experience to celebrate their seniors and include all the facets of a typical graduation.
Challenge
PEA challenged Saltwater to create a place on their website for their 2020 graduation to digitally take place. We needed to build the same anticipation leading up to the ceremony that students would have experience on campus, and so we developed a phased approach. The graduation page would end up having a pre-ceremony countdown, which unveiled a full interactive graduation ceremony that was live for 24 hours, before shifting into an archive mode for posterity.
So what was our objective?
Do something that hadn’t been done before:
host a graduation ceremony digitally in a way that was immersive for students and their families, and enable them to enjoy it from around the world.
HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN
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3.14MARCH 16, 2020
Schools in New Hampshire send students home due to COVID-19
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4.23APRIL 23, 2020
PEA reaches out to Saltwater about the possibility of a digital graduation
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5.7MAY 7, 2020
Saltwater presents the first round of concepts
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5.21MAY 21, 2020
Final direction is decided on by Phillips Exeter Academy
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6.3JUNE 3, 2020
Schools in New Hampshire send students home due to COVID-19
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6.7JUNE 7, 2020
The Stage is live and the Build Up phase starts
client testimonial
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a short amount of time to re-create a traditional, on-campus event for our graduates online. Doing so in a manner that fully honored the class and their achievements was the challenge. We went to our partners at Saltwater looking for ideas, inspiration and the ability to build a virtual experience quickly. They embraced the challenge and fully supported us from concept to site launch, with energy and a willingness to do what it would take to make it a special event for our senior class. The result was a microsite that delivered what we needed and helped to connect hundreds of family members to an authentic, first-of-its-kind online graduation ceremony at Exeter.”
- Karen Ingraham, Deputy Director and Editor, Communications
