TRANSFORMING BRAND PERCEPTIONS THROUGH USEFUL CONTENT

The Student Room is the natural destination for ambitious, inquisitive and high-achieving young people; with 7.5m+ students exploring options and finalising decisions monthly.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) set an objective to build Year 13 brand profile and shape perceptions of both the university, and Norwich as a destination. The diversity and volume of students turning to The Student Room everyday made it the perfect platform to reach their target audience. James Smith, Marketing and Recruitment Manager at UEA commented:

“We wanted to engage our audience at an early stage in their decision making process and cut through the noise of traditional digital marketing.

Working in collaboration with The Student Room allowed us to utilise data about what interested the TSR community to create material that fulfilled the dual purpose of boosting our brand awareness as a leading UK university, by providing informative and entertaining content to our target audience.”

UEA and TSR teamed up for a content hub partnership, sharing helpful advice on university life. Content pieces cover a range of extra-curricular themes identified by our Community and expert SEO teams as popular and recurring areas of discussion. The content hub, ‘student life’ is made up of 22 pieces of helpful written content and rich media for students, including articles, quizzes and video.

UEA added extra value through student case studies, advice from lecturers, student advisors and the UEA Student Union to create the bank of informative content which addresses students’ changing needs as they progress throughout the decision-making process.

THE RESULTS – HIGH-VALUE IMPACT

We surveyed two key groups of students to find out how the exposure to the content hub changed perceptions, sentiment and brand awareness. Results revealed:

  • 14% uplift in students who know UEA is a top 20 university
  • 18% increase in students who ‘know a lot’ about UEA
  • 30% uplift in students who think UEA delivers an excellent experience
  • 80% increase in students who would ‘definitely consider applying to UEA’

This unique content partnership showcases how client needs and business objectives can align with students’ requirements to deliver high-value results for both. One student shared their view on the effectiveness of the content hub:

“I like reading the experiences people are having at uni, all the information is really useful as I’m currently choosing universities to apply to.”

The transformation in brand perceptions demonstrates the value in content marketing and how quality content can attract attention, influence opinion and drive awareness. Download the full UEA case study to find out more.