Middlesex University - Multicultural marketing

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Middlesex University is a public research university in Hendon, North-West London

With over 19,000 students in London and over 37,000 globally, Middlesex University is ranked within the top 100 UK universities. The university has student exchange links with over 100 universities in 22 countries across Europe, the United States and the rest of the world.

Objective

The main purpose of our campaign with Middlesex University was to drive enquiries and applications for three communities (Polish, Spanish and Nigerian) based in London to Middlesex University for the September 2017 intake.

In order to achieve this however it was important we also increased brand awareness among those communities of Middlesex University and their offering. This increase brand awareness would then help to drive traffic to Middlesex Universities dedicated Open Day sign-up digital form.

Mechanics

As a result of having three different key target markets, it was important through this campaign that we treated each target ethnic audience differently and focused individually on the nuances of those markets. Despite this, our overall strategy and the channels we wanted to use were consistent across target markets because we knew these would be effective for Middlesex University. We selected to utilise print, digital and radio paid advertising supported by merchandising in ethnic stores, see details below regarding each specific nationality.

Polish

4-5 weeks’ worth of advertising in Cooltura, Goniec Polski, Anonse and News PL

4 weeks’ worth of radio advertising on Polish Radio London (weekends only)

Online banner on 3 different Polish portals

Advertorials and editorials

E-Mail campaign to 100,000 users of Londynek.net

Merchandising across 100 Polish retailers (leaflets and posters) – W, NW, N, SW, E, UB Postcodes

Spanish

4 weeks’ worth of advertising in El Iberico and Express News UK

Online banner

Advertorial and editorial content

Merchandising across 50 Spanish retailers (leaflets and posters) – NW, N, W, SW, TW, E Postcodes

Nigerian

4 weeks’ worth of advertising in Nigerian Watch

Online banner

Advertorial and editorial content

Merchandising across 50 Nigerian retailers (leaflets and posters) – SE, E, IG, DA Postcodes

Outcome

Over 100,000 impressions on the online campaign

Over 3,000 clicks on the e-mail campaign

Facebook Advertising campaign reached over 20,000 individuals

Significant rise in applications from the targeted communities

Deliverables

We created over 100,000 impressions through our digital advertising across the three different ethnic audiences. The targeted Polish email campaign through Londynek.net received a click-through rate of over 3% which is higher than the industry benchmark of between 1.5 – 2%. Our Paid Social, Facebook Advertising campaigns reached over 20,000 people across the three ethnicities to raise awareness for the campaign.

All of this resulted in a significant rise in applications from the target communities within the September 2017 intake.