LSBF 'Animal Facts' targets students for clearing marketing campaign

LSBF uses digital and traditional marketing to reach undergraduates focusing upon university clearing  

Campaign name: Animal Facts
Brand: London School of Business & Finance (LSBF)
Audience: Undergraduates and students
Duration: 08/08/2013 to 22/09/2013
Channels: Advertising (print and London Underground), email marketing, digital marketing, microsites, PPC and social media

Social Media Portal (SMP): Name of the organisation it is for?

London School of Business & Finance (LSBF):

London School of Business & Finance (LSBF)

SMP: The official campaign name and why was it chosen?

LSBF: The campaign is called Animal Facts, so it does exactly what it says on the tin. We also felt that the word ?fact? has quite an impact, encouraging people to read on in suspense.






SMP: What was the start and end of the campaign?

LSBF: Start 08/08/2013 to 22/09/2013

SMP: The target audiences of the campaign, who are you trying to reach and why?

LSBF: Our campaign hopes to grab the attention of students in clearing, who are, for the most part, aged between 16 and 25. That?s why we?ve gone for a friendly, conversational tone and we also hope they?ll enjoy the randomness of the facts!

SMP: Briefly, tell us about your campaign

LSBF: Not being able to get a place at university causes wannabe students stress, right? So we?re trying to reduce their stress and make them smile with a cute animal fact ? and by telling them we?ve got a place for them. We?ve got nine ads with nine different facts, including, ?Otters hold hands when they sleep, so they don?t float away from each other?.  More examples of the artwork is below:  

 

 

SMP: What are the goals of the campaign and why is it different?

LSBF: Clearing campaigns are historically very similar and very bland. Identical strap lines are written atop stock images of grinning students. By being aware of the mindset of our target audience during clearing, we believe we have developed a unique advert that will make people smile and, crucially, be remembered, discussed with friends and shared via social media.

SMP: What are the channels, platforms and methods you?re using?

LSBF: Since clearing is an important aspect of the UK application process each year, the bulk of promotional activities are focussed on local print and outdoor channels. You?ll be seeing a lot more of these adverts on bus super sides, underground stations and tubes (inside carriages) across London and in newspaper ads in Birmingham and Manchester, similar to the creative attached above.

Other lead generation channels include email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and microsites (LSBF main clearing microsite, Manchester clearing microsite, LSBF Undergraduate Centre on Facebook and the LSBF Facebook microsite).
 
As it?s a fully integrated campaign, you?ll also be seeing this campaign spread across social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter @LSBF, Instagram and Google+ to increase our campaign reach and customer engagement.

#LSBF and #AnimalFacts hashtags are being used across social media channels.

SMP: What are you doing to measure the campaign and what measurement tools do you have in place to do this?

LSBF: To analyse the effectiveness of the Animal Facts campaign, we will be using Google Analytics. It helps to measure our advertising and ROI, which attribute to the tracking codes that we use on all our channels, social networking sites and applications.

SMP: How are you making the campaign social and how are you integrating activity into offline channels that you are using?

LSBF: We have a dedicated Facebook platform for this campaign, which will be promoted on our main Facebook page to over 200,000 followers.

In addition, we are promoting this through our offline channels by providing the link to the Facebook platform and using dedicated hashtags too (#AnimalFacts and #LSBF) to encourage social media interaction and engagement.



SMP: Why did you decide to use the social media channels that you?ve listed? Are there any other environments that you would consider in feature?

LSBF: Facebook has the ability to target our demographic group given that this is our most popular social media platform - with over 200,000 followers on our main Facebook page alone.  Furthermore, as we are a private international business school, it helps us to reach a lot of people around the world with more ease.  

SMP: How are you making your campaign standout at such a busy and competitive time of the year?

LSBF: Visually, the cute illustrations in bold blue are a world away from similar campaigns. The copy is very conversational, engaging with the reader on a personal level and suiting the quirky nature of the ad.



Got a good campaign you'd like to tell us about and share? Tell us at SMP contact.