2026
The majority of university promotional materials aimed at prospective undergraduate students rely on promoting the 'student life'. Instead, this marketing campaign places a focus on the courses and the variety of career pathways that they can lead to.
With a focus on relatability and highlighting the student voice, this campaign uses a variety of touchpoints to confidently engage with and excite prospective students, positioning the University of Leeds to be their first choice of university to study at.
Process
Project Foundations
Working as part of a small group of marketers, we began the project by thoroughly investigating all aspects of the brief. We conducted research into what prospective students really value, how other universities engage with prospective students, and the thoughts of staff members who work during open days.
Next Steps
From this initial research, we identified key outcomes which would be both impactful for the prospective students and achievable for the team to begin producing. The focus was on producing materials which could effectively highlight the things students really care about, such as facilities, career pathways and teaching methods.
Production
After identifying what we needed to create, we set about producing our outcomes. This included content creation such as filming interviews, designing digital and physical posters, using university brand guidelines, editing videos and much more. During this time, we frequently engaged with and presented to the project managers and university clients to ensure all KPIs were being met.
Outcome
The final campaign consisted of five promotional videos for different schools within the university. With a fast-paced vox pop style and specifically designed stickers and animations, these videos have been shown to prospective students during open day visits.
Other outcomes included a collection of 43 alumni stories from 13 university schools, which have been displayed on digital screens around campus, 'Behind this door…' posters to explain the use of certain rooms and make the campus feel more open, and a staff toolkit with information regarding how to excite and inform prospective students effectively during open day talks.
