The University of Canterbury is New Zealand’s second oldest university. Since it was founded in 1873 as Canterbury College, the popular tertiary institute currently ranks within the world’s top 250 universities.
UCNZ needed a way to stay engaged with their current student body of around 14,000 students, while also reaching out to prospective students, in order to continue expanding their diverse student population. Flipped around, UCNZ wanted to attract potential students by having current students tell authentic stories, which would increase overall engagement and support for the UCNZ brand.
Simple, right?
Kind of. So we decided to add some complexity by using the campaign to launch a brand new platform for UCNZ, in Snapchat. While UCNZ has an established Facebook Page and Instagram Account, we felt Snapchat was the go-to platform due to the popularity it holds within the target audience, plus the short duration of the campaign.
The three Snapchat campaigns managed to paint a picture of student life at UCNZ that the marketing department could only dream of creating in-house.
In order to get a well rounded feel of life at UCNZ a 10-day campaign was set in motion that enticed students, through prize incentives, to submit unique and authentic content that showcased three different aspects of student life.
The first showcased Orientation Week, where students were asked to send snaps of their favorite O-Week activities leading up to the start of the semester. The second, ‘show us your crib’ campaign, asked students to send snaps of their flats and dorms. The third revolved around the campus and celebrated Mardi Gras, where students sent snaps of their best Mardi Gras moments.
In just 10 days the UCNZ Snapchat community grew by 697 followers and received 269 snaps. We reached over 11,000 students and had over 40,000 story views – all centered around the UCNZ brand, but using student-generated, 100% authentic content.
