Results and Effectiveness

Stepping into the students shoes, understanding their emotions at different stages and engaging them in their own language drove the campaign to huge success. The campaign also saw the 1st education institution in HK to breakthrough category norms. Business objectives were exceeded with a 20% increase in applications! In a pool of 38,647 F7 students, 1200+ wishes were sent, 100+ prospects joined the graduation photo community with photo uploads, the MSN game was played 15,000+ times, 35,000+ unique visitors were driven to the newly launched microsite and 800+ leads were generated.

Creative Execution

The campaign was structured around 4 stages of the student’s emotions; Share and Prepare: Students being passive information seekers are encouraged to share feelings to better prepare themselves. An interactive community microsite was the platform used to engage students. An online ‘Wishing Wall’ engaged peers and family to send student’s wishes via SMS. Online banners, Magazine and Radio drove this to generate leads. Advocacy: Video and blogs of current/past students were used to soothe student’s anxiety and nervousness. Call to action: Top-of-mind awareness was crucial to frantic students securing offers with results release. An online Graduation Photo Wall with photo uploading via online banners and MMS from Bus shelters and a MSN game drove engagement, WOM and education. Bus-body, MTR, eDM and Search played support roles. Enrolment: Students were reminded not to make rash enrolment decisions or be influenced by peers through successful case studies in print, eDM and SMS.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In Hong Kong less than 32% of secondary school students have access to a local university degree course. HKUSPACE Community College offers an alternative route for those who do not get an offer. The target audience, 17-19 year old senior secondary students perceive HKUSPACE as a prestigious yet distant brand. The marketing objective was to strengthen the relationship between students and the HKUSPACE brand to build share of mind. The business objective was to increase applications by 10%. Students experienced a mix of emotions from exams, results release to enrolment – distant, anxiousness, nervousness and excitement. ‘Emotional Support’ to help overcome concerns is desired. This was the brand’s opportunity to build a closer relationship. The strategy was to communicate at different stages of student’s emotional rollercoaster to ensure the right message engaged them at the right moment, to overcome fears, educate, facilitate WOM and drive enrolment.