P1

I will be looking into the advertising campaign for Edge Hill University and how they attract students using their cross-media methods. 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, so in this case Edge Hill.

The first of these platforms I will be discussing their use of social media. They mainly use Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. Using social media can be extremely efficient as you often don’t have to spend money, however, you have to pay for advertising placements. But, along with the large audience you will find, you can also track the performance of you online marketing. This can be done in many different ways. On social media, ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ are an obvious but brilliant way to calculate success, with it giving you a definite number and telling you who has interacted with it. Organisations can also use Google to track what keywords are leading people to their website/online profiles. This can then tell Edge Hill if online and offline platforms are working or not, with their TV advert including a slogan, if this has taken the audience to the website, they know I has been a success.  With Business Insider claiming 99% of people aged 16-24 in the UK use social media (http://uk.businessinsider.com/99-of-young-british-people-use-social-media-every-week-2016-8), it is an incredibly good place to put yourself out there. This statistic is especially useful for universities such as Edge Hill as this is a massive target audience for them. Considering how much room for conversation there is online, it’s a great place to develop brand awareness, something that is vital to do for Edge Hill considering it has some very highly rated competitors (University of Liverpool, Manchester). By utilising the location support on these media platforms, they can target adverts that are fitted in-between posts at those who live in the areas around the university. This means the money they are spending on getting this advert space is being used most efficiently as a large amount of their potential students will come from Liverpool. On Snapchat they also use the location support, however, here they can use it to advertise in a much more interactive way. Snapchat allows those who already go to the university (and anyone interested) to post to a ‘story’, which is made up of a combination of pictures and videos. All Edge Hill have to do is moderate the videos and pictures that are being requested to get put on the story. The rest is being created for the university by the so called ‘Snap-chatters’. This ‘story’ is then advertised to people using the app in the Liverpool area.
 
Another site of interest for Edge Hill is YouTube. Videos are uploaded by the university and by those who have just gone to the university. With many students uploading videos explain why others should go to the university, this word of mouth advertising is effective as not only do audiences look up to and appreciate what someone they like to watch has to say, but the potential students can also relate more to the person as they are of a similar age. Also, why would they lie? With YouTube being strict with so called ‘YouTubers’, they would have to declare whether the video is a payed advertisement. Meaning, if the video does not have an indication that it is an advertisement of some sort (e.g. #AD), then it is most likely their own views. Not only is YouTube free, but it’s also a potential money maker if Edge Hills’ video was to go viral. This money could then be put into other forms of advertising. This isn’t the only perk of going viral though, if the university was lucky enough, they could get thrown onto the ‘trending’ page of the website. This would mean the video (and the university) would be on display for the whole of YouTube to see. With the site now attracting 1 Billion unique active users a month (www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html), this is a goldmine of potential students (from the UK and international students). Especially when according to BARB, YouTube reached more 16-34 year olds than any commercial TV channel in the first quarter of 2016 (http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/06/16/youtube-study-claims-it-s-bigger-tv-16-34-year-olds). The to add on top of that, YouGov asked 16-24 year olds what video source they would use if they could not use anything else, 41% of these said YouTube. So there is plenty of potential students out there for Edge Hill on YouTube. On their ‘channel’, they upload a range of different videos that work well together to sell the university to those who watch. They upload interviews with staff and students, and tours around the campus and accommodation. This helps the audience to get more of a feel what kind of environment they would be joining, this is crucial to do as they need to be given lots if information to go off as it’s a massive decision deciding what university to go to. They then showcase the subjects, all with separate videos so they do not have to rush any explanations. To finish off, they also upload videos of their graduation ceremonies, to shed the light on the positive side of university while many watching may be feeling stressed by the decision that lays ahead.

Another outlet for Edge Hill to advertise is TV. Though we may have just established that young people are very much attracted to YouTube, there is still a huge audience out there on TV, and with many channels such as ITV being able to operate on a regional level (with Edge Hills main audience being the North-West), it can be a very efficient way. However, it can be quite expensive so when taking the chance with a television advert, you need to make the most of it. Edge Hill attempt to do this by using a slogan. This is a tactic used by many organisations to try and get the advert stuck in peoples’ heads. They used the slogan, ‘Have you Moment’. The advert showcases lots of different ‘moments’, these range from everyday ones you will have on campus, sporting achievements, and special opportunities you will receive with the course you have chosen. The advert ends on a sporting achievement, with dancers finishing off a performance and listening to the crowd cheer. They have purposely ended on a cheer to make sure the advert leaves on a high note. This positive ending is used to try and control how the audience feels, influencing them to remember Edge Hill as being a place they could also greet an applause at, whether this be through academic or sporting achievements. BARB allow Edge Hill to be able to track the audience of the advert, with the organisation calculating the number of people who have seen it, allowing the university to compare this to other information that is available. Such as Googles way of tracking key words. After the slogan is shown, they advertise an open day and their website. This helps to lead the audience from their homes (watching and thinking about the university) to the university campus (feeling and experiencing the university). The website being shown is an example of how their cross-media platforms synergise, as it directs the audience to other forms of Edge Hills marketing.

The last form of advertising I will be talking about is print. Edge Hill use brochures and have been mentioned in newspapers. These are a great way of giving people lots of information on what the university has to offer. As choosing universities is such a hard decision, potential students really appreciate being told as much useful information as possible to assist them. Brochures are good at explaining what the university has to offer and how you can contact them. With their website and phone numbers being placed on it. These leaflets can be passed around local secondary schools to attract attention and enquiries from pupils looking at university as an option for their future. They can also be given out at open days to give people something to read while they are walking around the campus. The brochures don’t always have to do the pre-open day advertising, and are able to synergise with the universities cross-media campaigns, by allowing other platforms to attract people to the open day, and then on the open day the brochure can do its job.


Edge Hill was also mentioned in The Times newspaper, being named ‘University of the Year’ at their higher education awards ceremony in 2014. It was awarded this for its “high rates of student satisfaction”. This is not advertising that Edge Hill have paid for and put out there themselves. However, it is still advertising, a type of advertising that is just as effective as any other method. Considering the Times has 7.93 million readers online and offline according to NRS, it’s a huge opportunity to be mentioned in it. As it’s not Edge Hill directly advertising, it becomes more trust-worthy to the reader, as to them, other people are now singing the songs of praise.

I think Edge Hill have a very good mixture of advertising platforms that are quite cost effective, due to the low prices of social media and the free advertising because of the award they won. They are also quite efficient methods with social media attracting attention from potential students and other mediums such as TV and print (newspapers, however, these are offline and online) attracting attention from parents. Their cross-media tactics synergise quite well with many mediums directing the audience onto another medium (e.g. TV to website, website to their social media, etc.).