From the Nominator

Every year, the University of Nottingham runs a welcome campaign aimed at new students to help them prepare for moving in and starting their studies. The social media that supports this run simultaneously with an institutional campaign but offers the community-building approaches and creative quirks that standard communications methods can’t provide. The 2023 campaign focused on Instagram and TikTok to give an entertaining, peer-led introduction to university life. We needed to inform new students about important things they had to do, reassure them that everything would be okay, and excite them about starting a new life away from family and friends. We made university film trailers and calming lo-fi videos of our campuses. In addition, our students shared their advice about making friends, navigating as an international student, being LGBTQIA+, and discovering their place through sports and societies. We continued our social communications to new students well into their first term, ending with mental health support and advice. The reach and engagement of this work was significantly higher than previous years. We created and published over 200 pieces of social content on these platforms to support new students and achieved over 3.2 million impressions. This included our first 100,000 plays on an Instagram Reel and our first 500,000 plays on a TikTok video. We're so proud of the impact this work has had and that we've helped students feel less alone at the start of their university journey.

From the Judges

We liked the outstanding results of this campaign, with higher reach and engagement compared to previous years. We also loved how the institution embraced informality and didn't shy away from trending TikTok challenges to personalize the university. The willingness to be playful and creative paid off. It serves as inspiration for other institutions. Great job on creating and publishing engaging social content that resonated with its audience.