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New
Improved
Bradford College!
When
set the target of recruiting an additional 150 students in
January, Bradford College adopted some whiter than white
Bright thinking to underpin their marketing campaign...
Bradford College is the one of the largest FE colleges in the
United Kingdom with approximately 22,000 students. With bold plans
to grow the College’s student community by 20% over 2006/07
a fresh recruitment drive was devised for January – in addition
to the conventional recruitment period in September.
The trouble with this fresh initiative was that the College
had no reference point from which to start marketing to people
of all ages and abilities in the post-christmas period –
this was new territory for the sector.
David Brack, Marketing Manager for the College, takes up the story.
“We had to fill approximately 150 places in most areas of
our FE provision. In September this would not be problematic;
but this was going to be tricky in January to an audience probably
made up of people who had missed the boat in September or had
even selected other Colleges and were unhappy with their choice.
One advantage we had, however, is that January is generally the
time of year when people are making resolutions to improve
themselves (usually fitness wise), after the festive period.
“We knew that Bright would bring a good dose of strategic
logic
to the campaign approach which, combined with their sector experience,
would give us a successful, considered campaign
we could use as a benchmark for ‘unseasonal’ marketing
in the future.”
Steve Osborne of Bright: "After looking at the offer (fairly
conventional FE), and the competition (likely to be fitness
clubs at that time of year), we decided to go for, literally,
a ‘bold’ approach. That’s ‘Bold’
as in washing powder.
“January is the classic hangover month in the UK after the
excess and festivities of December and the new year. We wanted
to tap into the desire for people to change their lives –
support them in their resolutions. Everybody wants to use the
new year to make changes and improvements to their lives.”
If
you would like to know more: steve@bright.co.uk
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