Best of CASE Europe Region Award
 

Institution: University of East London

Title of entry: Where Next? Digital location campaign

About this entry: The University of East London’s brand pillars focus on careers, community and location. While our careers messaging is front and centre, and our community is well represented, we have often struggled to effectively utilise our extraordinary location in campaigns. Our successful #BeTheChange campaign, initially launched in 2020, was the perfect platform to express the vibrancy, diversity and history that east London has to offer - especially as we emerge from a global pandemic. For the 2022 cycle, we expanded the campaign by utilising an ambitious, interactive online platform that would immerse the user in east London, and allow them to explore the region through the eyes of our students. We conducted research that revealed students were feeling disconnected from university life due to the lasting effects of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. Their online research behaviour centred on finding out about student experience and the ‘In Real Life’ (IRL) aspects of university. Pre-applicants were finding it difficult to imagine life at university, and had forgotten about the excitement attached to moving to and exploring a new city. The Where Next? platform has been a huge success. The content exceeded expectations in terms of depth and quality, receiving exceptional feedback from focus groups and stakeholders. We met the brief by creating a unique, immersive site that authentically showcases east London as a diverse and exciting place to live and study. Explore the platform at wherenext.uel.ac.uk.