An exciting delivery

This week we received our printed 2019 undergraduate prospectus. The team laugh at me for getting excited at this, but I love holding the prospectus in my hands, and seeing all the hard work from the previous months come together as a final product.

What people may not realise is that we start thinking about design concepts and layouts in the summer, start organising photo-shoots in September, and collating and writing copy in October, so when we receive the finished product, it’s a culmination of over six months of hard work.

This year we made the decision to move some of the content previously

located in the back section of the prospectus to the front, so prospective students have more information about things like the Students’ Union, student support, and accommodation initially. We also spent a lot of time changing the layout of our course openers. In previous years the openers had been quite busy, with multiple photos and blocks of text with coloured backgrounds. This year we’ve focused on one main image, and tried to incorporate some white space to make the pages more appealing, and easier to read.

The new simulation labs opened in Luton last year, and we were lucky enough to be able to sneak into a couple of sessions and take some photos of the fantastic, new nursing facilities. We were also able to update most of the profiles for this year’s prospectus. We often liaise with academics, asking them to recommend some students, and try to feature at least one student from each subject area, so prospective students can hear first-hand what it’s like to study at Bedfordshire. I’m in the process of contacting postgraduate students to feature in the 2019 PG prospectus at the moment, so if you’re a PG student that would like to feature in one of our prospectuses please get in touch!

My task for today is to send a couple of boxes of the new prospectus to all of our reception desks around campus. They should be available from next week, so if you see one please pick one up and let us know your thoughts!

Sara

Marketing Officer

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.

Out and about on campus

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the Marketing Department to say the least! I've been helping out on our Clearing and Winter campaign photo-shoots, which involves sourcing students to take part, meeting the students on the day, helping with the creative direction of the shoot and interviewing students about their UoB experience. We've got some really great shots, with students from various departments, and I'm excited to see the finished result of our Clearing campaign! A massive thanks to all of the students that took part in the campaign, and to all the staff that helped us source props, or recommended students to us.

I really enjoy getting out and about on the photo-shoots. I find it really interesting working with the photographers as they have such a different way of seeing things. I also really enjoy speaking to students and hearing their thoughts on UoB; it helps to see and understand things from another perspective which can never be a bad thing - especially for someone in Marketing!

On Friday the Marketing Team also got to spend the day over in the Bedford campus, meeting various media suppliers with our Media agency. This is the first time that I've been involved in a day like this since I started at UoB so it was a really great experience for me. Each supplier presented their media offerings to us and explained the different options available and how their offerings have evolved over the last year. For me, it was also a chance to put faces to names that I've been emailing the past year!

I've also been working on our PG campaign over the last few weeks. I've been sending emails to our current students about the benefits of progressing onto postgraduate study and recommending some courses that might appeal to them (and compliment their current studies). I'm also currently working on some materials for the Jubilee Scholarship, which offers UK/EU students the chance to study a Master's for free this September if they receive a first class Honours from us, so keep an eye out for these around the university!

On the subject of PG study, I also filmed Barbara Guinn from the Research Graduate School to find out more about the excellent support they offer students. Keep an eye out for the video on our YouTube channel, it'll be up by the end of the week!

In other news it's officially been over a year since I started at UoB! I can't quite believe how quickly the time has flown by but they do say time flies when you're having fun!

Lights, camera, action!

Over the last couple of weeks, Kylie and I have spent a few days out and about at the different campuses with photographers for the 2016/2017 prospectuses. We've got some great images from the photo shoots and I'm really excited for everyone to see them once the prospectuses are published.

I was mainly working on profile shots, taking photos of individual students and filming them talking about their university experience. I really love this aspect as it gives me the chance to meet some of our students and hear their thoughts and opinions on their course and the university (although I spoke to one student about the Go Global programme and it's set off the travel bug - help!). 

Much to our surprise, the weather was on our side yesterday so we managed to get some really nice profile shots and group shots outside too! As much as I hate the cold this time of year brings, I do love the colours of Autumn!

It was really interesting to work with the photographers as they have such an intricate way of seeing things. I also got to act as the photographers assistant a couple of times and hold some of the lighting equipment - although knowing the price of the equipment made that a little scary!

We've also started writing and collating copy for the 2016/2017 UG prospectus. This is my first time working on the UG prospectus so it's really exciting for me to be involved in every aspect of the project.

A big thank you to all of the students that got involved with the photo shoots! And to anyone wondering how/if they can be involved in our next shoot, please drop me an email.

That's all from me for now,

Sara

We're still clearing that path, someone get a leaf blower

Krystle Hall, Campaign Officer

The Clearing Campaign is still going strong with all hands on deck in the MARC Department.  We have ambitious targets to hit and everyone is working very hard to achieve them.  It’s been great seeing all the artwork erected in various formats in the local area.  Passers-by have looked on bemused as I have tried to capture billboards and lamppost banners on my mobile whilst striving not to walk into any hedges.

I went to the Odeon cinema in Milton Keynes yesterday to see ‘Million Dollar Arm,’ my boyfriend’s choice, he is always forcing me to watch sport and related documentary’s about former basketball players that have succumbed to the dark, drug fuelled underworld of sport only to emerge on the other side as motivational speakers (!).  Needless to say I was hesitant to sit through a film about both cricket and baseball but it turned out to be a typical feel good Disney endeavour.  Anyway I digress, my point being as I sat through trailers for ‘Lucy’ and ‘The hundred foot journey’ I was proud to see our Clearing advert flash up on screen.  It was good to see that it is still going strong.

We have even extended, upscaled and added further activity to really strengthen and optimise the campaign.  We have extended and added outdoor advertising, expanded our events remit and added additional Student Room, UCAS, What Uni , Metro and other University sector advertising online.  We are using detailed tracking and analytics to augment the campaign and ensure that we are using the best possible methods to get the brand out there.  I am also working on a new radio advert to refresh the message that it’s not too late to join us.

Winter is coming

For the past few weeks I have been working on the new artwork concept for the Winter Campaign.  We want to take the current Clearing concept of the student journey and develop it further to show the graduate journey.  We have been looking at how to retain what we created with Clearing but take it to the next level.  Coming up with creative ideas is easy, the hard part is making your ideas work on the page; making a functional advert that delivers whilst retaining edge and innovation.  And time is never on our side.  After playing around with different ideas we have now developed a mocked up design.  But you can’t see it yet, because it isn’t ready; our (proverbial Frankenstein’s) monster is yet to have life pumped in it.

But I can tell you that the strap will be ‘Discover a path to your future’ which continues and develops the ‘clearing a path to your future’ message (see what we did there; of course you did it’s not that deep).  The artwork sets out to visually represent UoB unearthing students hidden talents/skills/passions in the form of a glowing image against a dusky backdrop; it’s very dramatic. 

I was out of the office last week doing the photography and videography for it.  We have some great graduates on board from a range of disciplines.  It was really fascinating to hear about the different experiences and journeys that they had undertaken.  I found it inspirational to see what our graduates have achieved and it was great to hear how passionately they felt about their experiences here.  Some were recent graduates who had obtained scholarships, some had high profile jobs at well know companies and others ran their own businesses.  Our resident Marketing Assistant Sophia Meola had her arm twisted to represent Business.  I got some lovely ethereal, ballerina shots of her.

As ever we are very ambitious in our vision. For our Sports graduates Joe Strange and Ryan Freckleton I wanted to get dynamic motion shots of them running and jumping which meant taking shot after shot to get the image just right.  A photo shoot with us isn’t any ordinary photo-shoot it’s a chance to both pose and get your sweat on.    

We experimented with directional lighting to create extreme states and produce depth and interest in the photographs.  The test was articulating the vision in my head so that the photographer and model understood exactly what I was trying to achieve.  A lot of it was trial and error as solutions which made sense in theory didn’t always work out in practice.  Nonetheless I am confident that the resulting shapes and hues will really give this campaign a sophisticated, corporate feel that will set us apart from the competition and take the brand from strength to strength.

I’m sure you can tell that I am really excited to start working on the artwork properly now that we have got all the photography sorted; can’t wait to see it come to life.

Anyone who knows me will know that I love a spread sheet, sad I know, and I have been too busy of late to give my spread sheets the attention they deserve so off I go to love and nurture them back to present day accuracy.

Type soon,

Krystle