The
second advertising campaign I will be looking at is Lancaster University’s
advertising campaign. They use cross-media methods to attract new students as
it is important for any organisation to branch out onto various platforms of
media as it enables them to reach a number of different audiences. They use the
Flight model (commonly also known as the Burst model), to target audiences at
peak times. For a university this would be between September and January to
attract a large amount of people to their open days. This benefits a university
massively as it gives potential students a really good opportunity to feel what
it could be like to study at that particular university.
One method they have used is print. They
have a poster inviting readers to several open days. The dates to these are in
the centre of the poster to make them a focal point as they are arguably the
most important information on the poster and are in dark blue font against a
light blue background to make the letters stand out. This light blue background is actually the
sky as they have used a picture of a high view of Lancaster. The light blue sky
suggests it’s a bright and sunny day which is meant to give a positive message
and stands for what the experience could be like while going to the university.
It may also be trying to convey the message that Lancaster is a great
university as when we see weather like what is shown on the poster, people may
often refer to it as great weather. The poster also has a professional,
simplistic but not boring design that doesn’t take away from the message that
it is trying to give to you. For example, if there was a lot of action going on
in the background of the advert, people may only be able to retain that image
rather than the information it is trying to give you, in this case the dates of
open days. The poster also makes sure that the audience is informed on what to
do next. It does this by putting its phone number, email address and Twitter at
the bottom of the poster. It’s important that it is on the bottom as this is a
common convention of print advertising, so the audience will be more likely to
look there for that type of information. Not only that but because it’s at the
bottom, it encourages people to read through the poster from the top, meaning
they can at least try to take in all the information it gives you. Twitter is
extremely useful for advertising now due to its use for quick communication with
stakeholders on its constantly updating feed.
Lancaster University also use
social media, with Twitter being their primary platform, posting updates and a
range of information alongside retweets of student union accounts, showing that
they also get involved with the community they’re a part of. As soon as you go
onto their Twitter, you see that they won the 2018 University of the year award
from The Times. This is great as once people have seen their print advert, they
may decide to look up their Twitter due to it being featured on the poster.
This means those people who have an interest in the university will instantly
be given another reason why they should consider applying and finding out more.
The award shows visitors of the page that they’ve been recognised for being
good at what they do. This goes further than themselves claiming they’re a good
university as the award is from a third party that should have no interest in
being biased. Another social media platform they use is YouTube. As soon as you go onto their
YouTube channel, a video advertising an open day begins to play, which is
potentially what people will be looking for, especially if they’ve seen the
poster and decided that they want to find out more. As we can see in the
screenshot, the university shares its slogan with the audience- “discover what
you love”. This reaches out to their target audience as people between the ages
of 16-18 years old who may be looking at this, could be very unclear on what
they want to do with their lives. To solve this, Lancaster are telling them
that if they go there, they can discover what they want to do, what they
“love”. Social media is also very useful as it allows the university to measure
success through ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ and it can all be done at very little cost
(depending on how much they’ve spent to produce advertising material and
content).
One method they have used is print. They
have a poster inviting readers to several open days. The dates to these are in
the centre of the poster to make them a focal point as they are arguably the
most important information on the poster and are in dark blue font against a
light blue background to make the letters stand out. This light blue background is actually the
sky as they have used a picture of a high view of Lancaster. The light blue sky
suggests it’s a bright and sunny day which is meant to give a positive message
and stands for what the experience could be like while going to the university.
It may also be trying to convey the message that Lancaster is a great
university as when we see weather like what is shown on the poster, people may
often refer to it as great weather. The poster also has a professional,
simplistic but not boring design that doesn’t take away from the message that
it is trying to give to you. For example, if there was a lot of action going on
in the background of the advert, people may only be able to retain that image
rather than the information it is trying to give you, in this case the dates of
open days. The poster also makes sure that the audience is informed on what to
do next. It does this by putting its phone number, email address and Twitter at
the bottom of the poster. It’s important that it is on the bottom as this is a
common convention of print advertising, so the audience will be more likely to
look there for that type of information. Not only that but because it’s at the
bottom, it encourages people to read through the poster from the top, meaning
they can at least try to take in all the information it gives you. Twitter is
extremely useful for advertising now due to its use for quick communication with
stakeholders on its constantly updating feed.
Lancaster University also use
social media, with Twitter being their primary platform, posting updates and a
range of information alongside retweets of student union accounts, showing that
they also get involved with the community they’re a part of. As soon as you go
onto their Twitter, you see that they won the 2018 University of the year award
from The Times. This is great as once people have seen their print advert, they
may decide to look up their Twitter due to it being featured on the poster.
This means those people who have an interest in the university will instantly
be given another reason why they should consider applying and finding out more.
The award shows visitors of the page that they’ve been recognised for being
good at what they do. This goes further than themselves claiming they’re a good
university as the award is from a third party that should have no interest in
being biased. Another social media platform they use is YouTube. As soon as you go onto their
YouTube channel, a video advertising an open day begins to play, which is
potentially what people will be looking for, especially if they’ve seen the
poster and decided that they want to find out more. As we can see in the
screenshot, the university shares its slogan with the audience- “discover what
you love”. This reaches out to their target audience as people between the ages
of 16-18 years old who may be looking at this, could be very unclear on what
they want to do with their lives. To solve this, Lancaster are telling them
that if they go there, they can discover what they want to do, what they
“love”. Social media is also very useful as it allows the university to measure
success through ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ and it can all be done at very little cost
(depending on how much they’ve spent to produce advertising material and
content).
Lancaster have kept a consistency in their message by unsurprisingly making all their advertising (that I have discussed) about recruiting new students. This meant mentions of open days and a continued use of their badge/crest. This gives the university a recognisable logo/symbol that it can use to make audiences remember them by. This helps them to build up a brand that can be used to forefront advertising and their general online presence. Colour scheme was another feature they kept consistent, with green; blue, orange/red and purple all being used and often as stripes. As we see in the poster and on their Twitter pages header.
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