Digital Communications Awards 2016 Winner
MOBILE AND APPS
At the University of Salford, we’re always looking for new opportunities and ways to improve our institution and student satisfaction, no matter what corner of the University we come from. That’s why, within the Marketing and Student Recruitment Team, we aim to think outside of the box and push ourselves to develop the next big idea, to attract and engage the right kind of students.
1 ,000 potential students used the Matchmaker app
In July 2015, we launched the ‘Match Made in Salford’ clearing app during the UK A-Level results period, with the aim to help potential students make informed decisions throughout the clearing process, and of course recruit those students. The app was designed with a ‘Tinder style’ interface; providing personalised course recommendations based on grades achieved, subject area and career of interest. The user can then swipe through potential courses to find their ‘perfect match’. We featured in a number of national and international publications, including Information Age, the Independent and Times Higher Education, and we sparked interest across social media with the hashtag ‘#MatchMadeInSalford’.
Increasing site engagement by
264%
The success of the campaign was due to several factors, including our thorough research of our target audience to provide a unique user experience. But what gave us that edge was that we dared to step outside of the box, to be bold and to be brave; we challenged the regular ‘norms’ and ‘safe’ marketing strategies of other educational institutions. Our campaign had set goals in mind; we wanted to increase site engagement, increase offers made, and ultimately help students make the right decisions for their future. We did that; we even beat our set targets, and that has only made us want to do better, perform better in the following years and take forward all that we learned throughout the campaign.
View the Matchmaker web app at: www.salford.ac.uk/matchmaker
Read more here: www.salford.ac.uk/news/articles/2016/ university-tinder-app-wins-european-award
1,137
students were recruited
Approximately
20%
of the University’s total undergraduate recruitment for 2015/16