Please sir, can we have some more?

Usually, this blog is unapologetic and upbeat.
After all, we are “Marketing and Communications”. We grin, smell great and look amazing. If Hollywood was casting University of Beds: The Movie, we’d be the precocious cheeryleadery people buoying people on from the side lines. Or the Scooby Doo gang (Market Research Manager to left in the pic).

But at this time of year, we’re 'in it together' with every other University department, cowering behind plans for tenders and drawing board projects, anxiously waiting for news of budgets. The omens don’t look rosy.

I don’t think I’m going to like this blog. Make me feel all fuzzy.

Most of you who have managed budgets in the past will probably go misty eyed remembering your favourite. For some, it will have been their first allocated spend; for many, it will be the highest they’ve had. Either way, the likelihood is that this was a tidy sum; enough to support existing projects with the potential to engage innovative suppliers in order to improve them and to consider which of a number of options to innovate.

Not so long ago, university Marketing budgets were the stuff of sectorial legend, with at least one reputable commentator regaling universities, every year, with a round robin freedom of information request asking for marketing spend. The resultant information was then laboriously, tediously league tabled, reported and used to berate institutions whose spend was seen as excessive.

Taking the lid off

Recruitment drives have gone a bit

 “Dick Dastardly” over the last few years.

Since then, we’ve had the Coalition and are now being roughed about as a result of the current Government’s obsession with opening up the market. On the surface, the student number removal cap is all very jolly for choice, but puts pressure on those higher tariff HEIs who want to expand, mid tariff institutions to keep attracting mid tariff students and lower tariff institutions to hang on in there and survive. Oh, and enquirers and applicants, whose heads must be whirling more than ever with the expansion, not only of HE and the introduction of absolutely-reputable-honest-Gov private providers, but also with all this racket between unis and the choices being hurled at them and encouragement to look at alternatives to the traditional three year UG route. With all to play for, everyone’s shouting to make themselves heard.

As a result of marketisation, the sector spends more money on more sophisticated advertising. Which would be fine, although advisors and collaborative initiatives explaining and encouraging young people to consider their post school options appear to have suffered as a result. Universities used to in collaborative, avuncular fashion with fellow institutions encouraging people find their right path and aim higher; now the emphasis is on

SHOUTING ABOUT COMING TO OUR UNIVERSITY,
BECAUSE WE’RE 3% HIGHER IN THE NSS,
HAVE ROBOTS IN OUR EXPENSIVE TV ADS
AND ARE BETTER THAN THAT LOT DOWN THE ROAD.

How our budgets aren't done

You’ve just said there’s ££££s for marketing, and yet…..

That’s right. The sector is spending far more money beautifying and shouting. All quite tacky. MARC, you’d think, would be rolling in resource. We're often told, by those who should know, that this is the case. It's not though; it's really, really NOT.

While we’re spending chunks on  advertising and online presence, these chunks are being cut, diced, sliced, removed and spread more and more thinly as more and more initiatives are introduced – think apprenticeships, think STEM. MARC teams and budgets have shrunk. We have fewer (i.e. no) freebies to hook people in to chat at UCAS fairs, are sending odd people to these fairs (trust me, the Market Research Manager talking up a Fashion course is a 'lose-lose'), the prospectus paper is thinner and yet there's so much happening in the sector and in the institution, that we're expected to do and react to more and more. Recent excellent news about TEF and the hope for other good news in the next few months have the potential to be great, but put daft pressure on the Communications team.

We’ve moved from squeezing more bangs from the same buck, to letting bucks go. A recent example is the renaming of our Video Content Strategy Part One to the admittedly snappier Video Content Strategy. A shame; parts two and three were the advice and help content to support conversions (crucial some may say to a marketing strategy). Something, too, to help enquirers feel more informed about their immediate future, rather than a hard sell. Notice a theme anyone?

"You never give me your money;
you only give me your funny budgets
And in the process of negotiation
They get cut - Ooo-oo!"
Macca, 1969

Still, we survive and continue to play our part as best we can, in raising our institutional profile, listening to and attracting enquirers, applicants and students. Yes, more budget and more support would be nice, if only to clean, spruce up or ideally leave The Atrium, where the heating’s feral, the downstairs furniture looks like it’s been in a fight and there are almost as many fridges as there are people. Air con? Bust. And the lights go off on a regular basis. I’d assumed Facilities colleagues weren’t putting 50p in the meter, but have been told they automatically shut off when they’re not needed. (The lights that is, not our Facilities colleagues).

Next week, something a little more cheery. Honest. In the meantime, here are some examples of friendly info films from around our sites. Includes many of last year’s models and possibly a bit ‘gappy’, but here for your perusal.

PLUS, the 'go to' 1970s pop song celebrating money that's not either The Abba or Pink Floyds. Check out the harmonica one minute in; give that man an honorary degree!

Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes UCAS Exhibition

This week the University of Bedfordshire hosted the annual Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes UCAS Exhibition. The event was held over two days at our Bedford campus and welcomed thousands of students on campus to find out more about the different options available to them in the future. 

It was a great two days. The sun was shining (ok that might be an understatement - it was very hot!) and there was a great atmosphere on campus. As well as representatives from over 150 higher education institutions, there were representatives from the Army, gap year organisations, and information on apprenticeships. 

I was helping out on the University of Bedfordshire stand, talking to students about what they want to do after college and giving them more information on the various courses we offer, the benefits of undertaking a year in industry, and how we can offer them more than a great degree. It was a non-stop couple of days but it was a great opportunity to speak to students, staff from local schools and colleges, and staff from other higher education institutions. 

The event also made the ITV news so if you weren't able to attend the event take a look at the news story here. I make a small cameo (ah!).

I'm also helping out at another UCAS exhibition tomorrow at the University of East London (UEL) where I'll have another opportunity to talk to students about the different opportunities available at the University of Bedfordshire! I'm hoping for an air conditioned room!

Thanks for reading!

Sara

Marketing Assistant

Clearing is coming

The torrential downpours are here, wind is getting up, and every three days the sun is out, yes the Great British Summer is finally here. So summer in HE, students have done their exams, the last artworks in the degree show taken off the wall, and you can get served in the on campus Costa in under three minutes. For support staff though, it is our busiest time as we prepare for the beast that is clearing.

Each year the emphasis on clearing across the sector varies, from important to really important, and this year it is definitely the latter. In part this is due to the changing applicant behaviour, we’ve seen trends during recent cycles of applicants making decisions later and later, putting more pressure on the clearing process.

This year we are more ready than ever. Although technically an applicant can’t apply for a course with a university until the official start of clearing on 8 July, we have already launched our Clearing 2017 website. There are a few changes this year too, the first being the main call to action. As we are a month early, we are asking students to call and leave details with us, or complete a request a call back form, enabling us to compile an almost VIP list of interested applicants. This gives us the opportunity to keep those really keen, interested and warm. 

A second notable change is the way we display our student success stories. Often day-to-day the successes of our graduates can go unnoticed when absorbed in your own departments work. We can often take for granted their achievements, and this year we are going all out in shouting about them. The beautiful thing about these stories is that the successes are all from students who attended the University of Bedfordshire through clearing.

I think that the stigma of gaining a place at university through clearing being seen as a bad thing is disappearing, and reading these stories you’d see that from international Rugby star Maggie Alphonisi, to ITV news reader Becky Jago, you are just as likely to succeed and get the career you’ve always wanted, even if it all started with the clearing hotline.

To complement our early kick off to clearing, we have an array of digital ads running and inventory across key students sites, and from August you can also look out for ad in a cinema near you. The importance of this information, well as an extra who didn’t end up on the cutting room floor, the back of head gets into at least two shots.

You can register your interest in a course or just take a look at the University of Bedfordshire Clearing 2017 site at www.beds.ac.uk/clearing.

Market Research movie star

Oddie - mentioned later

The other day I was filmed delivering a lecture.

Not for some cheeky straight to web piece; not even for the small screen. This was full widescreen, cinematic, IMAX threatening celluloid. Or broadcast quality Betamax or something.

For one afternoon, I was a Business School lecturer. I know nothing about Business but wasn’t hurled off the set, so my ‘acting’ – by definition - was a storming success. I was pleased to get the gig, too. This was a chance to leave the surveys and spreadsheets behind and wave my arms around while warbling and waffling about ‘what an entrepreneur is’ and what SWOT stands for (you learn something new every day folks <ahem>).

My evident success stands in contrasts to my screen cv leading up to that point:

• man crossing road in unreleased film which certainly involved my old flat mate, Ched, and possibly one of the Coppolas (but not FF or S)
• one of a three bother team on Bill Oddie’s History Hunt which, thankfully, hasn’t surfaced on the internet (I’ve looked so you don’t have to)
• man on bike in indie film ‘playing the festivals’ (it’s called The Same Circles and is very good)

'Me crossing road' footage from first film mentioned above

The theatre is not my first love.

My two stage appearances were forgettable and came more years ago than I care to imagine

• Police detective with designs on the school caretaker in a Slip End Lower class-written musical theatre production about a vampire, who rather dominated proceedings with some outrageous overacting;
• ‘Old Man’ in Upper School production of Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan. Or ‘Good Woman’ as it was. My painfully boyish looks and mountains of talc alienated the bejesus out of an audience of tense, bored parents wondering why the hell they weren’t watching Gilbert and Sullivan.

Village ways

Acting as a Business lecturer allowed me to step out of the day to day while keeping both feet in it. There was a nightmarish quality in apparently holding an audience in the palm of my hand, telling them that “in order to run your own business, you need to start a business”. Over and over again. So many times, in fact, that I started wondering if I hadn’t unearthed some hidden wisdom and shouldn’t nip off somewhere and write a self-help book.

I hope and assume our real Business lecturers do a better job.

On set with Clearhead

Was being on a film set what I expected?

No. Though we were cued in with the word ‘ACTION!’ Plus, I learned that ‘kino’ is not only French for cinema, but also one of those big ‘sun bed on a tripod’ type lights and exchanged some terrific cross-generation ‘bants’ with my joint lead, Harry, who as an acting student, looked more comfortable than I did about our fictitious student/teacher relationship. Presumably, these exchanges will make the outtake reel.

I was impressed, too, with the assured organisation and management of the process– kudos both to our Marketing team and Clearhead.

Of course, my secret hope is that I’ll get picked up, not by the CMA, but by David Puttnam or someone. I’m not a betting man, but reckon on a 40% chance of being on the arty channels within the year. Two at a push. Anyone in the business note; I will not do reality, soaps or shopping channels.

Perhaps next year, when I’ve moved into BAFTA contention, you too could be in our cinema ads. Get in touch with the Marketing team; we’d love to hear from you.

That applies to a guest spot writing on this blog too – if you want to join our illustrious writers and have something to say about Marketing and Communications at the University of Bedfordshire, let us know by clicking here. Otherwise, please favour us with a comment below, in the comments box. We'd love to hear from you.