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Back in May, we looked back fondly at some of our favorite clearing campaigns over the past few years and today the day has finally arrived when thousands of students across the UK nervously begin the clearing process.
While clearing is undoubtedly a stressful time for prospective students; it’s also a major source of anxiety for universities and colleges. However, having a well thought out digital marketing strategy can make all the difference. According to the Telegraph, this year there are over 36,000 courses with vacancies; an increase of 20% on last year meaning there is a wealth of choice available to students. Universities and colleges need to fully utilize digital channels in order to promote and advertise their institutions and ultimately convince students why exactly they should choose them.
In honor of clearing commencing we wanted to acknowledge just a few of this year’s cleverest clearing campaigns:
University of Bedfordshire: Path to beds
We loved University of Bedfordshire’s creative approach to clearing last year and this year they’ve struck gold again with their ‘path to beds’ integrated marketing campaign which includes use of a twitter hashtag #pathtobeds, a facebook ‘jump into beds’ forum to aid discussion between students, a live YouTube broadcast of a campus tour and even a clearing flash mob.
Aston University: Top 10 reasons to choose Aston University
We really like that Aston University have chosen to do something a little different for their 2014 clearing campaign by opting to post a series of simple yet effective video messages on Vine titled ‘Top 10 reasons to choose Aston University’.
Vines are easily shared, only take 6 seconds of your audience’s time and are a great way of engaging with students and building up excitement about a forthcoming event. We have previously blogged about why higher education institutions should get on board with vine. Read the blog post here.
Liverpool Hope University- Your Future Starts With Hope
Liverpool Hope University’s clearing campaign features a whole host of marketing goodies; including an uplifting slogan ‘Your future starts with hope’, a handy facebook clearing app, an integrated twitter hashtag campaign #yourfuturestartswithhope and a rather persuasive use of Flickr to show off the best of their campus.
A successful clearing campaign can be as simple as using a well chosen hashtag or as complex as integrating it with a print media campaign. Our advice for next year? Just have fun with it and don’t be afraid to try something different.