Definitive Freshers' guides with Natwest & RBS
THE CHALLENGE
Drive awareness and consideration of Natwest and RBS amongst freshers going into their first term
THE STUDENT INSIGHT
Students are money conscious, and the long term plan is to save, although they rarely take the time to realise how and where they’re spending their cash - especially in their first term of uni.
Freshers week is something that all incoming students look forward to with huge anticipation. A new city, new friends, and new loan in the bank account - they’ll reach out to trusted sources for advice and guidance on how to get through the first term.
THE IDEAS
So, we wanted to help students maximise their enjoyment, while minimising their spending… We created a series of features across the summer in the lead up to uni, to guide first years through freshers' week and beyond, utilising our written, video and social platforms:
The Budget Calculator: We created a planner enabling students to check out how much money they'd have left, based on asking ten 'essential' questions including how much money they spend on food, if they're joining the gym, and if they always get a takeaway after a night out. All results were localised across each uni, providing genuinely useful insight
The Definitive Guides: A series of localised guides across ten chosen cities, detailing everything students need to know about the first term in their new city. We created both day time and nights out guides in accordance with our local editorial teams, sourcing local student photographers and prices. Both these and the budget calculator were designed and built in house.
Everything I'd wish I'd known during Freshers: A video from recent grads detailing the wonder of hindsight... From calling yourself a 'BNOC' to expensive fancy dress costumes, we created a Branded Social Video profiling what incoming Freshers can expect in their first term. This was distributed exclusively across our Facebook network
Co-branded Microsite: Finally, we created a centralised location housing all the content, using localised traffic drivers on site to take students through
THE RESULTS
In total, the content was viewed over 300,000 times and was shared over 2,500 times among our audience, with an average dwell time of over 2:30
The budget calculator amassed over 50,000 views, local guides over 100K and the video surpassed 150K views