Week 16 - Digital Development

Week 16

This particular client should consider the importance of it's digital presence as this is essentially the only platform it has to market it's services; the CampusConnect app has a number of characteristics that can be built upon in the development of the app and indeed to meet the altered brief we had discussed with the client (possible improvements to the app to meet the needs of the recruitment and retention team's consideration)

These characteristics, and the potential development and applications of them are detailed below;


Ease of Use;
CampusConnect has a dedicated application dependent on which institution the user is enrolled at. This ensures the relevance of content that the user is viewing and allows the subscribing institution to view unique statistics relating to user's habits.

Personalisation;
The app has a number of areas which can be personalised in order to suit the user, with a personal log in for each user. This could be further developed in the respect that the application itself could be developed into a modular layout that is adapted for mobile use and allows the user to see content that is most relevant to them easily.

Location Usage Information;
The application currently doesn't support location services - we see that this could be developed in a respect that the application can alert the user to events and offers on campus dependent on their location on campus. This encourages proliferation of the app's use - coupled with the fact that brands and services may pay the developer to display their offers on the app could be a profitable move for the brand.

Week 15 - Creative Analysis

Week 15

Secondary research that informed the creative brief came from that of competitor analysis and enquiries into the university's own policy on acquisition and retention of prospective students through digital means and the support available for current students. Here is what we found;

Competitor Analysis;

Gecko Labs

Can capture student data offline with no Wifi – Campus connect is most used by international students that may find it difficult to gain access to internet, so thus this will be extremely beneficial for campus connect 

•Enquires are stored in a cloud based system – if recruiting from international students across the world, the team back in the UK can engage instantly. – again will help with international students 

•Reporting and Analytics – every engagement with student is monitored and then provides you with a report explaining popular courses, locations and average number of enquires. 

•Social Marketing Insights – use student data to identify what social media platform they are most active on to find out their main interests and where they spend most of their time, this can be used to make more personalized marketing efforts to the specific student. 

 The fact that we ourselves are within the target demographic of the CampusConnect app put us in a unique position to pitch ideas to Daniel Hinckley regarding the creative brief. In regards to the objective of the session we re-ordered the brief in order to create a viable pitch for a solution;

1. What is the key objective?
The key objective of the brief is to pitch the CampusConnect app to the MMU recruitment and retention teams in order to secure a contract for StudyBundles to use their application with the institution. After meeting with the recruitment and retention teams of the university it was established that the university was not interested in adapting the app in it's current state as they had experience with their own prospectus application which had ultimately failed in it's objectives leaving them sceptical on the worth of the StudyBundles version. From here we met with the client and the brief was thus adapted to the purpose of setting the application apart from the competition based on our own research.

2. Who is the audience and what do they need from your client?
The audience in regards to the brief is the retention and recruitment teams at the university; however ultimately the target audience is that of the prospective and current students who will be using the application. 

3. What will inspire the audience to engage with your client?
I would recommend that the functionality of the application and it's potential to connect those with similar interests - for example those prospective students looking to join a sports society have the platform to do so. Likewise also highlighting the potential support available to those students who may not be overly sure about how their experience will pan out (see week 14 personas).
4. How will you reach the audience?
An important platform for engagement for this demographic is that of social media and in particular Facebook. Through targeted advertising certain demographics can be singled out and displayed advertisements related to their own interests. Through this method the demographic concerned can be reached with lower budgets and greater efficiency. 
5. What is the single most important message you’d like the audience to know about the brand/product?
That the potential of the application as a free platform to connect with current and prospective students in order to create a shared community is not an opportunity to be missed.

Week 14 - Personas

Week 14

In regards to the stipulation of personas relating to the target demographic of the client - I have been able to (from the results of the survey) put together some various personas for the clientele of the CampusConnect app;


Persona 1 - Jane, 21

• Current Student 
• Sport Orientated 
• Ski Society 
• 3rd Year 
• Looking to meet like-minded people
  
  Persona 2 - Ben, 18
  
  • Prospective Student 
  • Anxious about moving to a new area
  • Unsure on what lies ahead
  • Has lived in the same rural area all his life -
    only one of his friends to go to university
  • Looking for reassurance/support
    
    Persona 3 - James, 23
    
    • Post Grad
    • Keen to share his experiences
    • Head of a sport society 
  • Member of a student support group
    
    
    In this instance when we consider the different aspects of the personas presented and indeed their relationship with each other; the CampusConnect app can connect and benefit the attitudinal requirements of each persona significantly. For example - persona 3 can aid both persona 1 and 2 - and this is something that we considered when formulating our creative campaign for the client.

Week 13 - Market Research

Week 13

When considering the workshop brief in relation to our own market research in this project; I feel that the questionnaire itself was in parts too vague to attain a distinguishable insight upon which a creative campaign can be justified. For example;

This particular question asked participants 'Did you feel settling into university was easy or difficult' - which is essentially a closed question. This would have provided insights had there been a follow up question with the option of an open question as to why those who answered 'difficult' may have felt that way about the experience. In regards to demographics the team member who commissioned the survey ensured that all participants were of the 18-21 student demographic.

Some of the questions asked in the survey provided more of an insight than others; for example the questions 'how did your chosen university communicate with you before you arrived' and the follow up question of it's effectiveness yielded the following results;

This information informed our creative decisions and discussions with the client in a significant way; as we can establish the main method of communication and the opinion of the target demographic on this method; we were able to co-ordinate the campaign around increasing the Studybundles app's penetration through analysis of the strengths of the use of emails and the potential limitations.

In regards to additional data collection methods that may have improved the scope of our market research I would say that individual interviews may have yielded some useful information - however the participants must be willing and the process itself is time consuming; when considered from a business perspective which ultimately what The Big Agency unit is based around - online surveys have a much wider reach for a significantly lower budget; however they must be administered correctly in order to provide useful insights - which I feel ours was lacking to an extent. This will be discussed further in the peer assessment.

Personal Reflection of the Unit

This unit for me has been a difficult one in the respect that my team and my own performance in regards to the expectations set out in my PDP at the beginning of the year has been turbulent. However I am determined to get the most out of this experience given the circumstances in order to co-ordinate my independent study of the topics covered in my absence in order to develop myself professionally - I could try and pull the wool over everyone's eyes as I know some of my cohorts are attempting in the respect of claiming I have attended The Big Agency sessions through these blog posts; but aside from being a downright lie I feel that such an approach is not constructive to what this unit aims to achieve.

Aside from my studies - I am a part time telemarketer and small business owner; I run popular club nights in high capacity venues in the Manchester area - knowing and marketing to specific personas and conducting both digital and traditional advertising campaigns is essential for me to achieve financial success. This venture coupled with my part time work is incredibly consuming of my time and energy so while it could be argued my input in The Big Agency sessions has been minimal I have the skills being discussed in the seminars and use them in the real world regularly.

My last event was a complete success - totally selling out an 800 capacity venue on a Tuesday night with a total revenue of over £5000 and a profit of over £2000. Had it not have been for my use of targeted advertising campaigns, knowledge of my target market and effective communication with my street team this would not have been possible. I am in effect a marketing agency in myself for these services and as such I feel this sets me aside from those who claim to have developed skills in the unit who are in a similar position to me in terms of attendance but do not possess the same portfolio.

The two datasets indicate the National scale of my business and total revenue for advance ticketing for my previous event; 

However I understand it is also important to demonstrate my understanding of the theory that informs my decisions as a marketer and as such I will be committing myself to further blog posts which demonstrate my competence with this. I feel this is the best and most appropriate way for me to gain value from this unit.

So now we've started to gain traction with getting the project back on track; I feel that the general despondence within the team is beginning to manifest into something more positive; despite our performance up to this point in the unit leaves something to be desired we are determined that these next few weeks can get us back on track.

Following our discussions on our group chat the general consensus was we need to engage with the client and move forward with an altered brief which takes into account the reaction of the MMU team when the application was proposed.

I definitely have more confidence in my ability to do this now that the whole issue with the supposed liquidation of our client has been rubbished and resolved. Having a line of communication once again with the director is probably the most beneficial thing that we can do at this point and we have arranged a face to face meet this week so we can move forward constructively.

My conversation with Mark last week also helped bring up my spirits in regards to our progression in the unit - I remember him saying "It's not necessarily about where you are now it's more about how you bring it up to speed and progress in the second semester"

Literally the best thing I think we can do going forward is continue with the momentum that we have built up in the last week so we can stay on top of everything - the main reason that we lagged last term in my opinion is that with the ambiguity of the company's position we lost the initiative and became swamped with the pace of the project. Not this time!

Gantt Chart Progress

This is the team's progress illustrated in a Gantt Chart upto this point in the unit. Once we have had a response to the email from the university (see previous post); we will begin to conduct our primary research which will be then added to this chart.