Taking PRide in our work

Sarah De Guzman, Marketing Manager

Pre-drinks at Homerton College -
Sarah, Kylie, Beverley & Sara
(Left to right)

For those who keep up to speed with us on Social Media, this post will come as no surprise, as last Thursday we dusted off our log ins for our Twitter accounts to document our evening through a series of tweets - keeping everyone at MARC HQ informed as the evening unfolded. After many discussions over what to wear, we were on our way to this year's CIPRide Awards, which was being held at the lovely venue that is Homerton College, which had a slightly Harry Potter-esque vibe about it - much to the joy of our Marketing Assistant and die-hard HP fan, Sara.

After failing miserably at the dinner entertainment last year, we were back with a vengeance ready to take that quiz by storm. We teamed up with our friends from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who we also sat with last year, and were ready to showcase our improved trivia knowledge. After some quick fire rounds, covering some of our specialty topics of Peppa Pig, trashy celebrities, movies and music, we got stumped at the questions about sport and the Olympics - note to self for next year! After a solid collective performance, we were pipped to the post - but this didn't dampen our mood, as it was finally time for the big event - the awards...

Scooping the Silver

Hurrah! It was great for us to win Silver in the category of Best Low Budget Campaign - for the second year running! Marketing Officer, Kylie had put this award entry together, celebrating the achievements of our marketing work to drive footfall to our open days. The submission showcased some great results, with a 16% increase in footfall against target, and a 24% increase against the previous year. It was such a great achievement to win a Silver, as it was a big category; we were up against six other companies. And it really is testament to the hard work of the team and showcases our ability to be really creative and innovative, especially when budgets are tight.

Best Integrated Campaign

It was time for our second category: Best Integrated Campaign - yet another big category with six companies all vying for the top spot. The Silver winner was announced as Carter Jonas Bradshaws: Your Next Chapter. That's when we all start to feel a little nervous, wondering whether we've done enough to win. I have to admit, I did have doubts - we were in one of the largest categories of the night, but we had also won Gold in this category last year, so all I was thinking was surely not, surely we won't win again? But win we did! Amazing!

Seeing the competition we were up against, and having scooped Gold in the previous year, we were nothing short of delighted to see that we have retained our title for the second consecutive year! A lot of hard word goes into the planning, implementation and evaluation of our Clearing campaign, and to see the results that we were able to generate, and to see that our work is being recognised as the best in the region is no mean feat, and it's great recognition for the team!

Going for Gold

We were really pleased with the campaign results: in an environment which saw our applicants increasingly using external sources (eg The Student Room), our unique page views to our main website still increased by 26%. Call volumes to the clearing line increased by 33%, live chats increased by 27%, with Live Chat offers increasing by 17%. And, the judges were also pleased, and gave us a glowing endorsement:


"A solid and comprehensive campaign based on sound research. It had a focused approach based on smart objectives, with a clearly targeted audience that delivered an exceptional return on investment, using all available channels to achieve the highest impact possible. It turned what can be a stressful time for many students into a positive experience and this entry demonstrates how PR helped the University of Bedfordshire make this happen"

Celebrating our big wins!

Once the awards were over, it was over to the photobooth for some celebratory team pics, and then it was time to hit the dance floor; busting out our best disco moves. 

After a busy few months implementing the 2016 Clearing Campaign, we're already seeing some great results, so fingers crossed we'll have some solid entries for next year's awards!

To round up this week's post, I'll share what was quite possibly my favourite memory of the awards evening...

Highlight of the night: Kylie whipping her hair to Tina Turner, and a group dance to Bewitched! Classic! #PRideATC #PRideAwards

— Sarah De Guzman (@Sarah_Hampton) September 22, 2016

No rest for the wicked

Some of you would think that now most of the students have finished for the summer our work might start to wind down...well let me assure you, you are very, very wrong! We seem to have entered a very busy (but very exciting) time in the Marketing Department!

This week I've been out of the office for a couple of days helping with the photo shoot for our annual campaign. It's something that I'd never done previously so it was great to meet the photographers, get an idea of how it all works and, most importantly, meet some of the students and graduates that were taking part in the campaign. As cliche as it may sound it was a really great experience for me to meet our students, past and current, and hear their thoughts and find out about some of the amazing things they've been getting up too! I also managed to get a sneak peek at some of the shots we'd taken and they looked great (even if I do say so myself!) so make sure you keep an eye out for them later on in the year!

Graduations have been taking place this week so there's been a lot of smartly dressed students and their families around campus the last few days! On Friday I'll be filming one of the graduations at St. Mary's so I'll have another chance to talk to some of our students and find out about their plans now they've graduated.

We're also sending the final proof of our PG prospectus to the designers this week. I couldn't tell you how many times I've read it but it's really great to see it all come together! I can't believe it's nearly over but there's already talk of the UG 2017 prospectus so I'm sure that'll keep me going!

You may have seen that our Clearing campaign has already started (if you haven't check out our micro-site) so I've been working on a few bits here and there to help Krystle. It's been really good for me as I'm getting to see all the different sections of the annual cycle!

I also helped out with the UCAS convention (I can't believe that was a whole month ago!) at the Bedford campus. This was a really fun day for me as I got to go over to Bedford and see the new Gateway building and speak to members of staff that I wouldn't normally come into contact with regularly. There was a really great atmosphere at the convention and it was nice to meet some potential students. It did however bring back a few memories of when I attended a UCAS convention which made me feel quite old!

I've also been keeping busy outside of work too (I told you there was no rest for the wicked), and a couple of weeks ago I took park in the 10k Race for Life in Stevenage. I only walked it but, as I'm not the fittest of people, it was a big achievement for me! I love doing the Race for Life as there's always a fantastic atmosphere in the air! One of the local radio stations was there to support the event and after crossing the finishing line we asked if they could play Taylor's shake it off so we could celebrate in style (no pun intended...it really did just happen)!