1. Marketing made the difference:
undergraduate recruitment campaign
Peter Allen, Marketing Director

2. Biography
 Routledge publishing
 The Samaritans
 Leicester University
 Aston University
 Euro RSCG Riley
 University of Derby
Peter Allen

3. Tonight’s session
 The business need
 A good example of integration?
 The plan
 The budget
 The marketing challenge
 Timescale and implementation
 The creative
 Supporting items
 Results
 The gaps
 Please feel free to ask questions throughout
 This is not a perfect campaign, but it’s a real one
Marketing made the difference

4. Marketing made the difference
The business need
 2012 a difficult year for universities:
 fees tripled
 doubts about the value of a university education
 Nationally applications down 10%
 May 2012: Derby’s applications down 25.4%
 A potential shortfall of 800 – 1200 students
 Potential lost income of £6-£8m for one year or £17-27m for 3 years

5. A good example of integration?
 University of Derby is flexible and responsive when the business need
arises
 Management can see the business impact of market changes
 Marketing at Derby has a good track record : hard won
 Very clear choice: do nothing and face losses with impact on future or
 ‘invest’ / ‘gamble’ on action to change the situation
 Collective decision, guided by Marketing
 Other universities chose to do nothing or make cuts
Marketing made the difference

6. The marketing challenge
 Generate 400-600 new applicants for Derby ie reduce shortfall by 50%
 So find market segments with most potential
 Change their minds about (not) going to university
 Raise brand profile ahead of August Clearing
 Deliver an effective integrated campaign within 3 weeks including:
 Brand new Clearing website
 TV advert
 Deliver campaign pre-Clearing to attract applicants pre-Clearing
 Either avoid Clearing ‘chaos’ or at least build brand awareness for it
Marketing made the difference

7. The plan: ‘quality’
 Targeting wherever possible:
 C4 and E4 audience high propensity to go to university
 Targeted direct mail to 20,000 local 18 yr olds : reinforcement
 UCAS website advertising and email
 Student Room advertising
 Facebook: targeted by subject of interest / region
 Clearing supplements in Stoke, Derby, Leicester, Nottingham
Marketing made the difference

8. The plan: quantity
 ITV audience less but parental influence and brand awareness
 TV = big impact and relatively unusual for universities
 Sustained advertising and editorial in local press: partnership
 Sustained regional radio: young people and parents
 Outdoor 48 and 96 sheets: brand profile
Marketing made the difference

9. The budget
 C£300,000
 A small percentage of each faculty’s projected income
 TV: £183,000 inc advert production
 Radio: £30,000
 Outdoor: £32,000
 All press: £25,000
 Direct Mail: £11,500
 UCAS: £10,000
Marketing made the difference

10. Timescale and implementation
Marketing made the difference
University of Derby : Media Schedule
Media activity Production period Start Date Finish Date Budget
TV: ITV1, Central East and West, E4, Channel 4 Midlands and 4OD TV ad production: 14 days 18th July 5 Week Campaign 5 week Campaign 22nd August £183,000
You tube and University website
Radio: 5 regional stations: Capital Derby, Leics, Notts, Bham, M/cr Radio ad production: 5 days 15th July 26th July 22nd August £30,000
Outdoor 48 Sheets (Radio Express) regionally Outdoor production: 5 days 23rd July 19th August
£32,000
Outdoor 48 and 96 sheets (Clear Channel) regionally Outdoor production: 5 days 23rd July 19th August
Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Stoke
Pre-Clearing Adverts and editorial in Derby Telegraph Production: 3 days 19th July 2nd August
Pre-Clearing Wrap on Telegraph Lite (aka Derby Express) Production: 3 days 26th July £25,000
total
Clearing Supplements in Derby Telegraph, Leicester Mercury, Production: 5 days 16th August : one day only press
Nottingham Post
Direct mail to c20,000 18 year olds in the region using Experian data Production: 3 weeks 26th July £11,500
UCAS website: Course Search pages Production: 3 days 1st August 15th August
£10,000
UCAS In Track advert Production: 3 days 16th August thru Clearing ucas total
UCAS email to 8,000 unplaced applicants Production: 3 days 24 August : one day only

11. The marketing communications challenge
 Generate net new interest and applicants to the University of Derby
 Change the minds of people who’ve decided not to go to university at all
 Excite them about what university has to offer them / what they will be
missing out on
 Make the University of Derby attractive
 ‘Fill the void’ in terms of pre-Clearing application
 ‘Fill the void’ in terms of university advertising
 Claim share of mind ahead of Clearing
 Do all of this in a positive way
 Communicate quality
 Position our offer as the ‘standard’ for universities
Marketing made the difference

12. The creative
 ‘If you miss out on university this year, this is what you’ll be missing out on’
 Became
 ‘There are so many reasons to choose ….’
 Positive message, proposition you want to be part of
 Flexible mechanism to cover many selling points
Marketing made the difference

15. The TV advert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmeLerzFcio

16. Supporting items
Marketing made the difference
 Clearing website
 Home page banners
 Direct mail
 Social media
 Alumni email
 Etc

17. Results
Marketing made the difference
 393% increase in page views vs 2011
 120,000 views in 6 weeks : 39p per view

18. Results
Marketing made the difference

19. The gaps
 Lack of informed sophisticated targets
 Difficult to track from web hits to applications
 Certain elements difficult to measure:
 Outdoor and press URL: 5.4% of web traffic (6,452)
 DM URL: 48 visits but 1500 page views on day it landed
 /TV: 73 visits, 454 referrals from C4, 4,000 You Tube views
 Media coverage: AVE of £46,147 inc 2 x TV
 Overall impact is satisfactory
 Final business need was achieved and more
 Target: reduce shortfall by up to 600. Achieved: 950
 950 x £7,400 / spend of £300,000 = ROI of 2,243% or £7m
Marketing made the difference

20. What can we learn?
 Close relationship between marketing and core business is ‘useful’
 Still some way to go with this
 Internal comms is really important to share success
 Relationships across other functions are crucial
 Social media is immediate / raw but not everything yet
 Advertising works
 Real life is messy and gets in the way of perfect plans
 You don’t have to be unique, but you have to be there

 There’s always room to get much better
Marketing made the difference

21. Thanks for listening
 Any questions?
Marketing made the difference