Clearing the way forward: 2014 and beyond

Sarah Hampton, Marketing Manager

Getting Creative: On set with one of our
current students, Joseph, who came
via Clearing

For many, the months of June and July signify the end of term. Students are winding down after sitting their final exams and submitting their final assessments, and all of a sudden the campus seems to feel like a bit of a ghost town, as everyone starts to kick back, relax, and enjoy their summer break - but not the Marketing team! For us, the summer months are some of our most busiest and important, as we gear up for the Clearing Campaign, which is without question, our biggest burst of activity throughout the academic year. But Clearing doesn't just start on 14 August when the A level results come out. For us at least, Clearing involves months of preparation, as we plan and book in a host of activity, and devise a creative concept which we know will deliver results.

So in the last few weeks, we've been working with our agency Z3 Design, to come up with a number of concepts for this years big campaign. We're really pleased with the one we've chosen, as we feel that it really pushes the brand to an exciting new level, and is a bit more commercial in its approach meaning it will definitely not fall into the 'safe' box, and will most definitely turn heads in a rather crowded market place. We ran two days of photo shoots last week, which were crammed packed full of weird and wonderful shot lists with our current students. It's taken a while to get the creative to where we wanted it to be, but we're happy that it's direct and functional enough to drive enquiries, and quirky enough to show personality and differentiation, so we're really excited to share the visuals with the wider University over the coming weeks - keep a look out in future posts, for a first look of this years visuals.

We're live: our CRM system
is up and running

Although our activity is firmly rooted in Clearing - for 2014 entry, we're already beginning work to communicate with our 2015 enquirers by inviting them to Open Days and sharing relevant content via our CRM system: Belong at Beds. But what many don't know is that we're already thinking ahead to 2016. We've been meeting with agencies over the last few weeks to discuss our plans and publication timelines as we slowly approach the tender stage for our 2016 activity. It takes up a lot of time meeting so many different companies, but is nonetheless important; it gives us a chance to find out more about the agency, their resourcing and project management capabilities, to ensure that they don't just offer creativity and innovation but have the processes in place to deliver on the development of the work, which is no easy task. By widening the pool of companies we may work with we're able to bring fresh and exiting ideas to the table.

New campus: our UCMK
prospectus cover

Aside from this, we've also been busy progressing the Postgraduate 2015 Prospectus, as we approach second proof stage, and have been supporting the recruitment team with a high volume of jobs for both the June set of Enquirer Open Days, and the upcoming UCAS convention which is taking place on 23 and 24 June. We'd had a large numbers of requests to produce leaflets and other marketing communications to ensure that each department and faculty has a variety of collateral available on the day to promote their courses effectively to potential students, and provide them with a snap shot of the courses and successes within their subjects. We've also got the UCMK prospectus off to print (see cover right), and this 40 page publication will be printed and delivered just in time for the event, so we're pleased to be able to use this great platform, to promote our new campus location.

Picture perfect

Sarah Hampton - Marketing Manager

The very first Prospects
Postgraduate Awards

The month of November has indeed been a busy one, and not just on the work front. The Marketing team has been busy jet-setting around the UK as we attend many an award ceremony. In earlier posts you'll see we went to nearby St Albans for the CIPR PRide awards where we were incredibly excited to scoop two Gold Awards.

This time we headed off to Manchester, along with the Digital Marketing Team to attend the very first Prospects Postgraduate Awards. As our last event of the year, we were out to have a fabulous time!

Feeling festive and enjoying
the xmas market

On arrival we couldn't help but pay a quick visit to the Christmas Market which was a stone's throw from the Awards Venue, the Radisson Blu Hotel. We spent a good half an hour sampling different cheeses and working out whether it was ok to have pesto and coconut in a cheese - obviously not in the same cheese! After taking in and savouring the sights, sounds and smells of the market, we made our way to the venue ready to take us our seats. Being an avid awards goer this year, we like to think we can tell whether we're in for a lucky night. We were all sat on the judges table, so surely a good sign, right?

Our digital team celebrating
on stage - well done!

We were over the moon as the Digital team picked up first place for Best Website. A truly fantastic achievement, and very well deserved after all of their hard work! Unfortunately, we didn't manage to win this time round in the category of Best Postgraduate Prospectus. It was the biggy of the evening, with more than 11 universities all going for the coveted prize and so the competition was definitely steep. But we were very pleased to have made the short-list, and even managed to get a certificate for being a finalist.

Back in the office it's been an incredibly busy period as we get cracking with the 2015 Undergraduate Prospectus. We've been busy writing and refreshing all text, auditing all courses, and arranging new photography to best showcase our new facilities. It was Clare's first big photoshoot with us here at Bedfordshire, and so the team accompanied her to show her around the campuses and facilities and demonstrate the kind of shots we look for when putting a prospectus together. We were able to see the brand-new sports halls over at our Bedford campus, and although I've been with Bedfordshire for more than six years now, it was my first visit to the Alexander Sports Centre - oh the joys of following a sat nav and ending in sheer panic as it says "you have reached your destination" and you're in the middle of a residential area.

Brand-new Art & Design teaching space

I did enjoy going over to see the new Alexon building in the centre of Luton town, which is the new home for our Art and Design students. It was great to see such a professional looking creative space, and made for some excellent pictures which will feature in the new prospectus. We were able to showcase our Fashion students at work, as well as Interior Design students happily working away and commenting on different furniture designs, as part of their projects.

Aside from the prospectus, we're quite excited to be launching our new CRM system: Belong at Beds. We've been busy generating and uploading content, after many a training session, and are almost ready to go live. So keep checking back here to see how the live launch goes.