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

Full of PRide after awards win

Sarah Hampton, Marketing Manager

After a week off in the sunshine, I'm finally back in the office and what a first few days back it's been.

Two Gold Awards for Team UoB!

On Friday the Marketing team got glammed up and headed on over to the CIPRide Awards, as we had been short-listed for not one, but two coveted awards. As I was still over in Gran Canaria, I sat with cocktail in hand, in the hotel bar (the only place with wifi!) sporadically refreshing my twitter feed to see how we had done. Much to my delight, we scooped a Gold award for Best Publication - for our 2014 Undergraduate Prospectus. After whooping in the bar and celebrating with a few more cocktails, I was surprised to see that we had won another Gold award - this was a special judges prize (and the second consecutive year that we had won this award) for the Best Use of Research, Planning, Measurement and Evaluation.

Celebrating on stage with an
award win

This really was a great achievement for the Marketing team, and really is testament to the hard work that is undertaken throughout the year. A lot of time and effort is placed into producing our university publications, but in also evaluating the performance of all work, and assessing the ROI and value in all that we do. The team I'm told, had a great evening out, although were left a little on the hungry side after letting the canapes pass them by.

Gold for Best Publication: @uniofbeds for their Undergraduate 2015 Prospectus #PRideATC
— CIPR East Anglia (@CIPR_EastAnglia) November 7, 2014

Midland Hotel - Manchester

And just when you think it can't get any better! Paul and Lauren from the Digital team, alongside Beverley and I headed off to the Midland Hotel in Manchester only yesterday, as we were up for another award. This time the Marketing team was up for Best Faculty Campaign at the Prospects Postgraduate Awards for our work done last year to increase applications to PGT Sport courses.

Celebrating our award win

After a hearty three course dinner, and a good catch up with our contacts at Prospects, the awards were upon us. We were up in the penultimate category, against three other universities and so left to sweat it out until the end. As the speaker started to talk about the winner, I could see that Paul was already celebrating - I of course had missed the subtle references of a 'photo finish' - which of course was relating to our sport campaign. Once it was announced we cheered as we made our way up to the stage to collect our very first award for a marketing campaign.

Award for Best Faculty Campaign

This brings us to a close for this years' award season. So, until next year it's back to work on our 2016 Undergraduate Prospectus, as well as our main corporate campaigns: Winter, Jan Start and Pre-Clearing - and who knows, maybe next year, it could be one of these initiatives that we'll be celebrating... :-)