P1:
Describing an existing media advertising campaign – Edge Hill University
I decided to look at how Edge Hill University attract their
students from their advertising campaigns. I have found that Edge Hill publish
their advertisements during and just before peak applicant times, typically,
around September-January where open days take place. On these adverts, open
days are advertised to locals who may want to visit the university if they are
thinking of going there after they finish college. It is important that Edge
Hill University include details of their open days on their adverts as they
allow the university to show off their best subjects and facilities in order to
attract students.
Apart from just plain and simple advertising, Edge Hill have
also included a slogan to many of their adverts across their media products. In
this case, Edge Hill have consistently used the slogan "Have Your
Moment" which suggests all the opportunities you can achieve by studying
at Edge Hill. This is so that people can hopefully remember and recognise this
slogan which increases their awareness of the university. Edge Hill have a
published TV adverts to local TV stations so that only locals will be able to
view it which makes the audience a lot more relevant for Edge Hill rather than
them advertising to people who live hundreds of miles away. These adverts
include key information about the open days, past exam grades and the
opportunities available to their students. These adverts are often on video
streaming sites such as YouTube with many more links attached to other videos
about the University.
Edge hill doesn’t only just use online advertising but they
also use traditional advertising in the forms of flyers, newspaper adverts and
billboards in local areas. This increases the total amount of people who can
see these adverts, especially for those who don’t watch TV often or don’t have
certain social media sites. For example, Edge Hill produce big billboard
posters to put on bus stops in local towns around the university to advertise
to those passing by.
Before creating an advertising campaign of
my own I will be looking into other advertising campaigns from other
colleges/universities. I decided to look at how Edge Hill University attract
their students using cross-media methods. It is essential for colleges or any
business for that matter to advertise using different platforms of media to
expand the audience as big as possible. Most colleges usually promote during
peak applicant times, typically, around September-January where open days take
place. This is to attract as many people to their open days as possible in hope
of recruiting students looking for where to go.
These open days are hugely beneficial to colleges as it gives students a
chance to get a feel of what the college is like to help with their decision.
In this case it would help Edge Hill University as they can be allowed to show
off their best subjects and facilities to attract students.
Their use of social media is a key factor
to their recruitment advertising campaign. Using social media is highly
effective for recruiting students as the majority of 16-24-year old's in the UK
use social media – Business Insider say this percentage is 99%. It is a great
place to raise awareness as there will be many students browsing the web who
may not be aware of what they want in their future and will come across this
advertisement. Following this statistic, it is important that Edge Hill University
does promote themselves on social media knowing how popular social media is
among students. Their aim will be to beat other local universities such as the
University of Liverpool or John Moore's University) so they must ensure their
use of social media to raise brand awareness is maximized to its full
potential.
Source: http://uk.businessinsider.com/99-of-young-british-people-use-social-media-every-week-2016-8
Using social media platforms such as
Instagram and Twitter are highly beneficial to companies as making accounts and
tweeting out information or adverts about the university is free. However,
advertisement placement such as promoted tweets can be costly. Social media is
also very good for calculating their audience. On twitter it is possible to see
how many people have engaged with the tweet and features such as 'likes' and
'shares' also help provide easier data analysis. Another method of analyzing
data from their advertisements is by using search engines to find out what key
words are helping people find their University website. For example, the
university may have a certain slogan and people may have searched this on
google to find the University website. This is beneficial to the university as
it proves whether their slogan is a success and is working to attract
students. Another thing new technology
on social media can help with advertising is location support. Social media sites
such as Twitter can find user's locations to be able to only show university
advertisements to fairly local students. This will essentially narrow down the
target audience to relevant potential students which ensures the money spent
advertising has not gone to waste showing students who are from the other side
of the country. YouTube can be used to upload videos advertising the University
for free, however, the production of the videos can cost them some money. These
videos can include their best facilities, their best past exam grades and also
interviews with ex/current students or staff, tours around the university and
showing what their accommodation offers. Videos are an important way to
advertise places such as Universities as they allow viewers to get more of a
feel of what the university is like and what they have to offer which can
really help a potential student's decision. They shouldn’t just fit everything
into one video however, they are best to publish many videos specifically
showing certain subjects or key facilities of the university such as the
accommodation. YouTube can also be a
beneficial place for Edge Hill if students decide to make and publish videos
about the university such as reviews. Many potential students may prefer to
hear exactly what it is like from a student who has studied there themselves to
be able to relate more instead of from videos created by the University
itself. YouTube also gives Edge Hill University
the chance for their video to go viral. YouTube have a trending page on their
site and if their advertisement video ended up there it would create a massive
boost in the awareness and reputation of the university. If this was to happen
and the video was popular on YouTube then they would begin to get an income
from it which they can then spend it on further advertising. Edge Hill University
would certainly be missing a trick if they decided not to use YouTube as an
advertising method as according to Business Insider, YouTube Is watched every
day by 26% of teens which is even more than any commercial TV channel.
Another social media platform is Snapchat.
Snapchat is most likely the most popular of social media apps for teenagers so
it would be an advantage to Edge Hill to make the most of this. Snapchat have a
unique way of allowing universities to advertise which also includes location
support. They have a special 'stories' filter which can be used for certain
locations for snapchat users to post videos and images for anyone else to see.
Edge Hill can use this feature to show their university off interactively by
having their own University story section in which students from the university
can post stories into it for anyone who is local to view.
Finally, the last digital advertising
outlet that Edge Hill can advertise with is through TV. Adverts are a very
efficient but costly method of advertisement due to the large viewing audience.
They can be shown on TV channels which are regional such as ITV. For example,
they would only show Edge Hill adverts to those watching in the North-West
region of the UK. The key to a good TV advert would be a catchy slogan to help
people recognize the University easier. In this case, Edge Hill used the slogan
"Have Your Moment" which relates to a series of 'moments' shown in the
advert such as sporting achievements and graduations. This slogan suggests all
the opportunities you can achieve by studying at Edge Hill. The advert shows
plenty of achievements suggesting it is a very successful university and that
it will guide you to many successes. At the end of the video it shows a Dance
show cast being applauded on stage which leaves the video on a positive note to
suggest to the audience that studying at Edge Hill will end in applause and
pride. As I mentioned earlier, this slogan can be used to represent the
university and can be tracked using Google's key word tracker to analyze the
effectiveness of the slogan. The advert
also shows the website name at the end to direct viewers to other online
platforms of the university such as social media pages. This shows an example
of how synergy is used between their cross-media platforms. Hashtags can also
be used for slogans on sites such as Instagram and Twitter as they allow you to
search the hashtag and it shows all tweets containing the hashtag. Therefore,
Edge Hill can use a hashtag in the advertising campaign so they can see what
people have to say about their university just by searching the hashtag.
Similarly, to this, BARB can allow Edge Hill to track the audience of the
advert as they calculate the number of viewers the advert received. This can
allow them to compare this information with their other advertising methods to
be able to see which is the most effective.
The last form of advertising I will analyze
is the use of print. Edge hill use a few variations of print advertising such
as brochures and advertisements in newspapers. Brochures allow potential
students and their parents to read all about the university in detail instead
of only seeing a brief selection of clips and information that’s shown on an
advert. Brochures are good for explaining everything about the university and
they really help students make such a really important decision in choosing a
university. These brochures and leaflets can be given to students in colleges and
sixth forms around the North West to help them decide where they want to go
once they've finished at college. Universities can use synergy between their
cross-media advertising platforms by using social media, TV and newspaper
adverts to advertise the open day then the brochures can be used at the open
days to advertise the university even more.
In newspapers universities can advertise their open days to students to
attend and they can also include some contact details such as their website
address or phone number in order for readers to find out more information. If
the university do so well they can also be published into newspapers for their
achievements which will increase their reputation and popularity. For example,
The Times newspaper included an article in their paper about the 'highest rates
of student satisfaction'. This indirect advertising would be highly beneficial
to the University due to the high popularity of The Times newspaper and the
millions of people reading it online or offline who would now be aware of the
University and may attract students to join.
M1
Throughout
all the university advertising campaigns I have researched, there evidence of certain
groups/people or stereotypes to enforce any messages as universities have a
large target audience. This theme of a more generalized cast of people is
carried out in every form of advertisement, especially the video advertisements.
I have analyzed a second university which is Lancaster University and I have
noticed how consistent the messages are across both universities’ adverts from Edge
Hill and Lancaster University. As well as Edge Hill, they use cross-media
methods to attract new students to reach many different audiences. Universities
tend to use the bursting model, to target audiences at peak times which would
be between September and January for universities to advertise their open days.
One
of the most popular methods of advertising for all Universities is arguably the
use of social media. Due to the popularity of social media between students, it
is for sure a platform that is certainly going to be successful in reaching the
target age group for a university. For example, Lancaster University has a Snapchat
feature which consists of posts by its students as well as having the usual Twitter,
Facebook and Instagram. Lancaster University use these sites effectively as
they all have features which allow them to collect information on who has
interacted with and viewed their advertising posts. From this they can see
which social media platform is most popular for them, allowing them to then
focus their campaign on this site. Edge Hill and Lancaster University both have
the Snapchat story feature which I believe is a cheap but very effective advertising
methods. The Snapchat stories give Lancaster University lots of recognition as
anyone locally can view posts from the University and its students. This gives local
snapchat users an insight into the life of students which intrigues them about
in the University, especially because many stories posted are of students
having fun. Another popular social media platform both universities use is
YouTube. YouTube is completely free of use to allow Lancaster University to post
videos with also a chance to go Viral. A benefit of online technology for
advertising is the use of cookies which helps businesses reach their target audience
a lot easier. This is done by targeting adverts at products/services at users
who have been looking at these things online. For instance, if users have been
looking at universities online then cookies would enable Lancaster University
for their adverts to reach this user. This can be done on YouTube by having
their adverts popping up to the audience before their chosen video starts.
Another consistent way of delivering messages for universities is by creating
and posting videos about the university including courses that they offer or their
accommodation. Universities do this to enable viewers to find more specific
information about individual courses that they are interested in, making things
a lot more convenient for the audience. Both
universities have videos enabling the target audience to get a feel of their
campus which is done through slideshows of images or campus tour videos which
can be published on YouTube, their website or even social media. Publishing detailed
information of courses and accommodation doesn’t just benefit the consumer but
it makes the University look professional and allows them to portray the
University in any way they want. If this is done effectively, it can be a big
factor in attracting new students to their university.
Here
is a link to a virtual campus tour of Lancaster University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGOPzRpM0yA
Overall
Lancaster University utilities cross media-advertising very effectively. For example,
their use of synergy is used often to make consumers follow over onto different
forms of media to discover more information. For example, their print adverts don’t
include too much information, instead they include links to their social media
pages. As print advertising limits what universities can advertise, using
synergy to make consumers follow onto online platforms can be highly effective
when showing off everything that they offer through methods like videos, images
or just more detailed information. Synergy is used on pretty much all the
adverts that both universities have created, to encourage the audience to visit
another platform by including things like "Visit our YouTube channel to
see more". From analyzing both advertising campaigns it is clear to see
that their focus seems to be advertising on social media. This would make sense
as social media allows them to get the feedback they need, it is cost efficient
and how popular it is with the universities’ target audience. As well as having
consistent delivery methods, both universities are consistent with their
messages on the adverts. I have found that most of their ads are aimed to give
the audience a sense of belonging, enjoyment and success. For example, on their videos and print posters
they have images of students laughing, smiling and generally enjoying
themselves to provide a sense of enjoyment and positivity. This effectively takes
away the common thought that university is all work and stress by highlighting
the positives. Another common message that Universities portray across is how successful
they are. This can be done by including their past exam grades. In this case,
Lancaster University include ‘University of the year’ in all their adverts
after being voted it by The Times newspaper. They take advantage of this as it suddenly
puts a positive idea in the consumers head when they see it. It suggests that
if they go to this university that they will become successful in life because
of how highly rated the university is. During their video advert and virtual
tour, they also do a good job of applying a message of them having excellent accommodation
and a positive working environment in hope to attract students. To continue this
message of being voted the best university in the UK, they have also included
the award on their Twitter header photo, along with some other successes in
their bio to provide an instant positive reputation for new consumers who visit
their page.
Additionally,
on the print adverts and social media pages of all universities I have analyzed
have included their contact details at the bottom of their adverts as this is a
common convention of print advertising. It allows consumers to contact the
university for further information and to solve any queries.
