Who's getting creative in Clearing? (August 2014)
Universities are taking it personally: From 'tongue-in-cheek' videos to Vice-Chancellor selfies, marketing was all about personalisation this August.
The slight fall in A* and A grades and a reduced pass rate – for the first time in over 30 years – meant that the brightest students found themselves in a ‘buyer’s market’ with greater potential to trade up. The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) revealed that the number of undergraduates admitted to selective universities increased by 4% in 2014 compared with just 1% for those institutions with the lowest entry requirements. Again, we witnessed Russell Group universities advertising places through Clearing – with 17 out of 24 promoting vacancies more than 24 hours after the publication of A-level results. By the time the dust had settled in 2013, figures showed that in the two years since higher fees were introduced some English universities had increased their student intake by up to 40%, while a number of post-92 institutions had lost more than 20% of their entrants. With such increased competition and pressure to hit targets, it is little wonder that marketers go ‘all out’ during Clearing; it has become a time of year when we see the greatest innovation and creativity.
Which universities and what activities made an impression on this seasoned Clearing aficionado in 2014?
Personalisation
One of the first marketers to extol the virtues of personalised videos, launching the UK’s first ever at Birmingham City University, I’ve long been a fan of personalisation. Common place in the United States, it has yet to really take off creatively in the UK. For me, two universities made the experience for students getting a place that little bit more special. The University of Birmingham used personalisation to its advantage during Clearing, sending students whose places had been confirmed a light-hearted personalised video welcoming them to the University. While the personalisation was relatively simplistic – essentially featured in two areas – it proved highly effective, both surprising and pleasing those who received it and generating lots of positive comments on social media and 142 likes on the Facebook announcement. With a more serious underlying message, the University of Sheffield's Clearing campaign advised students with exceptional grades to go ‘1 better’ and trade up. The messaging capitalised on the fact the University has been voted number 1 for student experience – with the best Students’ Union – for three years in a row. After results day, students given a place were sent personalised graphics and e-cards which celebrated their exam results and incorporated the underlying theme of success.
Student engagement
Persuading prospective and current students to engage on social media is notoriously difficult. Most universities now encourage prospective and current students to take selfies (or take photographs of students themselves) and post them on twitter and facebook feeds, usually with very little success. The most innovative approach I saw this year, which bucked the trend and produced dozens of self-taken photographs and/or lots of retweets, shares and likes, came from Loughborough University. The #IAMIN campaign saw the University sending new students a cut-out polaroid-style frame to take their own selfies. Hugely popular, the University not only posted the selfies as they were submitted, but also created video tours of the selfies published each day too. The University of Salford, using a clever play on words, encouraged everyone to send in their #Salfie with even the Vice-Chancellor getting in on the act. The University of Roehampton had been running a #IamUR campaign all year, featuring case studies of current students and alumni. Sadly, these seemed to have dried up before results day, but nevertheless prospective students cottoned on to using the hashtag when celebrating their places.
Information and guidance
When it comes to Clearing Guides, it takes a lot to impress, having been responsible for producing one of the first in the sector back at the University of Wolverhampton in 1998. Nowadays, it is hard to find a university that hasn’t produced its own ‘Guide to Clearing’, though some are undoubtedly better than others. Middlesex University's video ‘Guide to handling parents’ was well produced, with a clear and concise script, great graphics and superb corporate branding. This video provided a new take on the issues of support for prospective students during Clearing and was a source of rich content, retweeted by many sources and quoted in news articles. The University is rapidly establishing itself as the leader in the production of infographics on topics as varied as Clearing, graduation or student finance, all designed in the distinctive corporate colours of red, white and black. Similarly, it was the overall simplicity and consistency of branding of Teesside University’s ‘Clearing made simple’ campaign, integrated across all digital platforms, which set it apart for me. On the main website, navigation was extremely easy, with lots of links to advice, information and visiting opportunities. What really impressed me was the fresher's guide, which was being promoted widely as the next step for confirmed students. It wasn’t radical in terms of content, though there was a nice video to inspire freshers about what’s in store for them, but it was comprehensive, pulling all of the relevant information together in a simple way. What could have been cluttered, instead looks professional and clean with the use of an underlying table structure, iconography and corporate colours.
Current students as ambassadors
Anyone who has worked in Higher Education understands the power of using current students. Often a University’s best ambassadors, it is current students who prospective students really want to speak to when getting a feel for what a particular course or university is really like. For this reason, universities have for many years recruited students to work as ambassadors at Open Days and other events, but this year’s Clearing revealed far more student activity than ever before. University of Wales Trinity Saint David recruited a number of student social media ambassadors, each with their own twitter accounts linked to the main corporate account, resulting in substantial content and activity with a very personal feel to it. Birmingham City University also recruited students to answer Clearing queries out of hours on social media; it also produced a range of videos featuring prospective and current students on what it’s like to study, attending an Open Day and avideomade by students for students going through Clearing.
Outstanding customer service
Over the last three years, as student recruitment has gotten tougher, we have seen an increase in the opening hours of Clearing hotlines and the frequency of dedicated Clearing Open Days. However, Teesside and Southampton Solent took customer service to a whole new level, becoming the first institutions in the UK to offer a 24 hour Clearing hotline. And there was no missing Southampton Solent’s telephone number!
Distinctive positioning
In a buyer’s market, it is important to get across your key messages and clearly tell prospective students why they should choose you over and above your competitors. There were lots of tweets pushing news stories and star academics, but some universities made a concerted effort to convey a range of influential facts and figures. Those that caught my eye included the University of Surrey, with key facts and figures around league table positioning, excellence and student satisfaction incorporated into the design of the website and promoted on social media, Bradford and East Anglia. From promoting the latest student satisfaction and employability ratings to the fact they have the largest pharmacy school in the UK and an award-winning campus, Bradford's corporate feeds – and some Faculty accounts too – presented a united front, consistently pushing content related to its accomplishments throughout the course of Clearing. The University of East Anglia, meanwhile, found a great way to convey its picture perfect campus. A series of ‘Wish you were here’ postcard pictures as part of their #experienceUEA campaign showcased what is clearly a picturesque campus as well as a range of unique selling points.
TV advertising
Television advertising is very expensive (you need to budget roughly £40K for production and at least £150K media costs for a three to four-week medium weighted campaign), which is probably why it remains rare within HE. Having developed almost a dozen TV adverts for three different universities, I understand that TV (which has the potential to be seen multiple times by millions and has the best recall for advertising) is actually one of the best mediums to generate action and can rapidly transform public perceptions. A 2014 study by Millward Brown found that despite having the highest penetration of smartphones across 30 countries studied for receptiveness to screen advertising, the British spend more time watching television than any other country – spending on average 2.5 hours, or 36% of their screen time. De Montfort University's clips of inspiring imagery, challenging messaging and the crescendo of music and narrative were reminiscent of BCU’s Shaping the World TV advert launched last October. But where I thought DMU really made the campaign their own was in the background story which sat behind the content of the TV ad, which was explained on the website and promoted through social media. From this, it became apparent just how much thought had gone in to every single image, many of which featured the University itself – from the circuit board representing DMU’s unique Cyber Security Centre to the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences’ state-of-the-art electron microscope, which provided one example of the cutting-edge technology available for students. The advert generated lots of very positive comments on social media and will undoubtedly raise the profile of the University significantly.