How Lumen5 is Helping NC State University Boost Their Online Presence and Drive More Traffic
ABOUT NC STATE UNIVERSITY
A leading public research university
NC State University is a leading public research university with more than 36,000 undergraduate and graduate students. It’s made up of 12 different colleges based in North Carolina. Each year, NC State adds $6.5 billion to the statewide economy, the equivalent to creating more than 90,000 new jobs. It has a social media hub where their marketing and branding processes are centralized. The University targets anyone from prospective students to current students, alumni, donors, and parents. "The way we work—we're like a vehicle. We draw out the creative direction and provide all the tools and software people need to do their job (like Lumen5, Hootsuite, Brandwatch, etc.), plus training. We hired a social media specialist for each college—who are like the drivers. They follow the main strategy but can decide if they want to take that left or go straight. It’s a combined effort that works great for us."
"I love how easy it is to use Lumen5 and how much time it saves our team. I’m always happy with the results and knowing our video content will resonate with our audiences. I also love that it empowers us to be more creative."
Drew Sykes, Social Media Director, NC State
THE CHALLENGE
Make videos like a pro (affordable, engaging and in less time)
The University’s social media team did not have the bandwidth to shoot high-end videos, so they were working with a videographer who trained them in using Adobe After Effects and Premiere. But creating and editing videos was taking too much of their time—they needed to free up their schedules and deliver projects faster. That’s not all. Metrics showed their social media videos were not always performing well. Since one of their main goals was to raise the number of views, shares, likes, and comments, they were missing a robust tool they could use to churn out text-based videos and better engage their audiences.
"Spending half of a business day to create and complete a video project? We can’t afford that."
Drew Sykes, Social Media Director, NC State
THE SOLUTION
Lumen5 and NC State University: a match made in heaven.
When NC State University found Lumen5, it was love at first sight. In the beginning, NC State University was happy with generating attractive text-based videos in a timely fashion. With Lumen5 regularly releasing new features, they were able to add sound bites, use different cropping options and pick layouts that match their branding. The tool’s availability goes hand in hand with the social media team’s needs. If there's an event on campus, they can shoot directly with their phones and create videos on the go. Plus, Lumen5’s features allows them to produce content they can repurpose for other platforms. Lumen5’s little tweaks are improving NC State University’s social media game, allowing them to stay on brand and level up their creativity.
"We knew Lumen5 was the right tool, so there was no point in looking any further."
Drew Sykes, Social Media Director, NC State
THE RESULTS
Increased reach, increased engagement, and time saved.
Using Lumen5 allowed NC State University to increase its number of videos created and in less time. Drew Sykes and his team saved, on average, five hours per video and saw production time become 8x faster. When shared on social media, Lumen5 videos see huge improvements in engagement, including a 118% increase in views, 70% more reactions, a 135% increase in comments, and a 145% increase in shares. Overall, Lumen5 helped NC State to translate complex research into genuine, shareable videos with less effort. At the same time, it allowed them to repurpose content and be more flexible with their content creation methods.
"We're currently creating more videos and driving more traffic while having more time to invest in other projects. These were our goals, and Lumen5 has been the catalyst, helping us grease the wheel on the vehicle to drive faster."
Drew Sykes, Social Media Director, NC State
“With the traditional agency, the time is usually about one week. But with Lumen5, it’s cut down from weeks to hours.”
Visual content director at Siemens AG
“Lumen5 is especially helpful for business people who don't have the technical experience to make their own videos.”
Media relations and content manager
“Thanks to Lumen5, we have been able to cut down on the time and costs related to video making.”
Global advertising and sponsorships
“We’re able to create a video quickly with a turnaround of five minutes versus trying to coordinate with an agency and see if they have time to fit you in. With Lumen5, you could just get it right then and there.”
Social & digital content manager
“The best part about Lumen5 is that it's not time-consuming. It's really easy and you only need a couple of minutes to create a video because everything is included.”
Senior online marketing manager
“We have scaled Lumen5's use across our marketing organization, realizing benefits across many team layers. As company communicators, this agile tool enhances each customer's experience and engagement.”
Director of global integrated marketing, Emerson
“We saw increasing demand within Communications for an intuitive self-service video production tool and Lumen5 filled the gap.”
Creative & digital assets manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re
NC State needed a faster and more scalable way to create social media videos across its twelve colleges. Their team lacked the bandwidth to produce high-end videos in Adobe tools, and results from existing content were inconsistent. Lumen5 offered an intuitive platform that let their social team produce high-quality videos quickly and stay aligned with university branding.
Before using Lumen5, creating a single video could take half a business day. With Lumen5, editing and production became 8 times faster. The team now saves an average of five hours per video, which allows them to publish more content and redirect time toward strategy and campus-wide support.
NC State uses Lumen5 to create text-based videos, event recaps, research highlights, campus updates, and short shareable stories for social platforms. They also produce videos on the go by capturing footage on their phones and importing it directly into Lumen5. This helps them turn campus activity into real-time social content.
After adopting Lumen5, the university saw major improvements in performance. Lumen5 videos delivered a 118 percent increase in views, 70 percent more reactions, a 135 percent increase in comments, and a 145 percent increase in shares. These gains helped them reach more prospective students, current students, alumni, and parents across multiple channels.
NC State manages social media through a hub-and-spoke model where each college follows central guidelines but tailors content to its audience. Lumen5 helps keep branding consistent by providing templates, layouts, and customization tools that align with the university’s standards. This allows each college to produce its own videos while staying visually unified.
Yes. The social media team at NC State started with limited experience in professional editing tools, which slowed down their workflow. Lumen5’s drag-and-drop interface, built-in sound bites, cropping options, and flexible layout tools made it easy for non-experts to create polished videos. This empowered their team to be more creative without relying on specialized training.
