Location, location, location

Last week I spent two days in Bedford with Spectrecom filming a location video to showcase our Bedford campus and some of the highlights of the town. The weather tried to hold us back on Wednesday so we focused on indoor shots, capturing footage from one of our dance classes, a performing arts class, and our very own SU bar, before heading over to the Harpur Centre to get some shots of the shopping centre.

Luckily for us the rain stopped around lunch time so we ventured outside and got some shots of the market, Bedford Corn Exchange and St. Paul's Church. We were then off once again, first to Priory Park and then to the cinema (to film I promise!).

The sun was out on Thursday so the team got some lovely shots along the Embankment, and, quite surprisingly, I was only asked once what we were doing! We also captured shots of the train station, Silver Street, Bedford Park and Bedford International Athletics Stadium; so a jam-packed couple of days!

The team also spent two days at Milton Keynes (thanks again Jenny and Pete!) capturing footage for a MK location video. We're already excited to see how they're going to look and we can't wait to share both videos with you in a couple of months.

With the video shoots last week and the photography shoots the week before, it's been a busy couple of weeks in the Marketing Department! This week I'm back in the office and working on our 2018 undergraduate prospectus (yes, already!), our applicant newsletters and some open day emails.

I'm also trying to arrange to film some industry talks and master classes, and some student interviews so I'm sure you'll see me around campus sometime soon.

Another week in the Marketing Department

I can't believe it's Friday already (not that I'm complaining of course!). With the bank holiday on Monday this week has flown by!

On Tuesday and Wednesday the University hosted the US festival - a dance festival involving several universities within the UK. The two day event featured workshops from various practitioners within the dance industry as well as performances from the university students involved. On Wednesday I got to visit our Bedford campus to film some of the workshops and performances. It was a great afternoon and I was lucky enough to sit in on some amazing performances. I'll be editing the content next week so look out for when it goes live on the more than a degree site.

Today I'm also going to visit the Art & Design graduate show, Frame. Frame is an exhibition showcasing some of the work by our final year students and I'm quite excited to see what they've produced! The show will be running in the Alexon building until the 15 June so, if you haven't already, why not check it out?

Over the last couple of weeks I've also spent some time focusing on our Postgraduate offering. At the end of this month, we'll be hosting a Postgraduate Open Day so I've been working on some information emails for our second and final year students to let them know about the event. I've also been working with our CRM team and the library team to get some digital signage put up on the plasma screens and LRC screens to further promote the event to our current students. 

And continuing with the PG theme, I've also been working on the PG prospectus for 2017. I've been liaising with various faculties and departments around the University to ensure that all of my sections are correct and up-to-date as well as proof reading copy and selecting images for the prospectus. I'm pretty sure I've said this before but it's coming along very nicely and I can't wait for you all to see it!

What on Earth am I doing?

In short: a lot! You know how I mentioned in my last post that coffee was an important part of my job? I’ve had the caffeine shakes non-stop for about a week now. To avoid this looking like the ramblings of a very busy marketing assistant, I will divide it up into neat sections.

Videos

I have produced a lot of videos since I last blogged. When a department comes to me and asks what they could be doing to market their department better, I will normally suggest that they do a video. Kids these days (I feel like at 23 I can now say this, plus, as the Brownies I volunteer with keep pointing out, I will be a quarter of a century old next year) are all about content. I know when I was applying to universities, I barely read anything on the website (sorry whoever has Angela’s role at the University of Leeds - I know how much work goes into writing for the web!). Here’s a by no means comprehensive list…

Life Sciences: Fancy dressing up like those people on CSI and dusting for fingerprints? Then check out the Forensics facilities video and apply to the course.

Computer Science: The Computer Science andTechnology students showcased their final year projects. There was everything from virtual reality computer games to robotic arms controlled by the movements of a human’s and I was there to capture the action. There’s some great research going on in the department!

Dance and Professional Practice: The very talented dance students were kind enough to let me film some of their rehearsals and edit it together with some interviews that they did for me. They had nothing but praise for both the course and the lecturers. I had Sia's Chandelier in my head for about a week afterwards.

Sport: I have edited together some footage that the IT department filmed before I arrived here to create a talking heads video. Again, there is some fascinating research going on in the department, not to mention a lot of very fancy equipment. Fancy going in a Bod Pod anyone?

All of these videos are on, or will be on, the University of Bedfordshire's YouTube channel.

UCAS

Everything has been go go go for the UCAS convention that we are having here in June. I have been organizing some leaflets and business cards for some of my departments including English Language and Communication, Teacher Education, Education Studies, Sport, Computer Science and Technology, and English.

Making Friends

This is probably my favourite part of my job. I get to meet so many people and I have finally got to meet all of my departments. I have worked quite a bit with Life Sciences in the last few weeks as well as Performing Arts and English. Most recently I have done some filming with the Sport department and will be filming some more of their labs after I get back from New York. I finally don’t get the ‘she doesn’t even go here’ (Mean Girls reference!) feeling when I go over to the Bedford campus.

Catch you later!

Clud.

Clearing: a path to your future

Clearing 2014

With colleagues from all over the MARC team working so hard on the Clearing campaign, we’ve witnessed it gaining a lot of momentum over the last couple of weeks. 

Campaign visuals are looking fantastic in situ – they're absolutely everywhere and so very hard to miss! Bus backs, billboards, bus stops, posters, big screens, lamp posts, banners… You name it, we’re there! Even as I prepared to leave the country on holiday at the start of August, the clearing message flashed up on the check-in screen at Luton airport; rest assured, all bases have been covered!

As well as the more traditional marketing activity, Krystle’s organisation of a Clearing flash mob created a real buzz in Luton Mall this week. On Wednesday 40 dancers entertained the public with flash mobs dancing throughout the afternoon. The atmosphere was brilliant and Lutonians young and old had lots of fun, all in the name of Clearing!

Here's just a couple of the mentions we got on Twitter after the event:

RT @chelsgomes: the flash mob done by @uniofbeds was so good haha! so excited to be there in September :-) -> Good work yday! C U in Sept :)
— uniofbeds (@uniofbeds) August 14, 2014

Great fun at @TheMallLuton with @uniofbeds! pic.twitter.com/72NSq7ErEY
— Holly Patel (@holly_patel) August 13, 2014

Student Ambassadors outside the show van

I’ve enjoyed getting involved in the Clearing efforts not least because it’s given me a reason to get out of the office. On Thursday I manned the Clearing show van with two of our wonderful Student Ambassadors. It’s great to step away from the computer screen, get out into the local community, and talk to the public face-to-face; who knows, someone I’ve talked to this week may end up studying at Bedfordshire later this year. 

As the Admissions and Recruitment teams continue to work hard over the weekend and beyond, I’m glad I’m able to play a small part in the University of Bedfordshire Clearing operation this year. I have a great feeling that all the positive momentum created so far will carry us through!

PG 2015: Hot off the press!

PG prospectus 2015

While most of our minds are focussed fully on Clearing 2014, it’s hard to believe that the Marketing team has now completed the full suite of 2015 publications! Copies of the brand new postgraduate prospectus for 2015 entry arrived on our desks this week, and we’re delighted with the finished item. If you haven’t already seen a copy, feel free to pop over to the Marketing pod to take a look. 

Clare