Newsletter #51: University of Sunderland understands hero videos; Meta is a genius move; A YouTuber plans to host his own Squid Game
✏️ From the Education Marketer desk
Most Clicked #4: This week, Nathan, Matt and I discuss University of Bristol’s accommodation marketing; How London Business School got 160K YouTube subscribers, and what the latest baby boom means for HE marketers. We’re joined by two awesome guests from the University of Bristol - Francesca Macnagten (Head of Marketing) and Chris Leach (Senior Digital Content Creator). I think you’ll like their take on “community-led” accommodation marketing. Watch
📰 HE news
US unis are returning to form on marketing spend - doubling their investments in the first quarter when compared to the same period last year. But the killer is University of Maryland, forecasting a spend of $500 million on marketing over the next few years, half of which it plans to spend on digital advertising. I wonder if it figured the death of the cookie into that? Still, this story buries the lead - confidence in US higher ed is at an all-time low: Down from 70% in 2013 to 51%. It feels like the sector is still on a journey - Purdue University’s Chief Marketing Officer highlights that we’re only just starting to see a “maturation of marketing and particularly brand management in higher ed,” which - honestly, makes me worry about the sector’s future. How will institutions still spending the bulk of their budget on digital ads handle the shift to greater consumer privacy? It requires a completely different model. Read
“Employability skills” are back in the news again with graduates sharing that they need more. A lot of this is due to Covid - the jobs these students were promised are nowhere to be seen, and thanks to the unrelenting pace of the exponential age, it’s genuinely harder to keep skills updated. What’s interesting is the kind of skills these graduates are after: “enterprise and entrepreneurship” as well as those based on “uniquely human qualities” - so, erm… What module does that come under, again? If the current crop of college dropout billionaires are anything to go by, I find it hard to picture the next generation of entrepreneurs sitting on their hands while being lectured. Read
📊 Marketing and media news
Say what you want about Zuckerberg (I know I do) but Facebook’s pivot to Meta is nothing short of genius. It won’t distract the wolves from Facebook’s door, but the company is effectively positioning itself as “The Metaverse” i.e. the place the next evolution of the web will happen, even if it isn’t necessarily the case. This isn’t just a rebrand, it’s category design and the first time in history a >$100b company is betting on the promise of the future, rather than existing market demand. For higher ed, the advantages of the metaverse are clear - a way to finally bridge online and in-person teaching, the sector becoming truly global and greater access to education. We’re years away from the vision shared in Facebook’s keynote, but it will arrive sooner than you expect. Think of where we are now like the internet was in 1995 - don’t you wish that you had jumped in sooner? How would you have done things differently, knowing what you know now? Keep a close eye on how Meta and associated tech evolves over the next six months - you may spot an early opportunity. Meta keynote | Founder’s letter
Lots happening in audio this week. Snap is carving out its own niche in “memeable audio”, which fascinates me as a concept. Sure, TikTok laid the groundwork with lip-syncing and a vast music library, but Snap builds on the trend by incorporating movie soundbites from titles like Scarface, Back to the Future and The Office - how cool is that? Amazon is also making waves with a new app that allows users to “launch their own radio show” - so we’ve gone full circle then? Until now, building thought leadership through audio has been limited to episodic podcasts and live audio platforms like Clubhouse. But with Amazon’s new platform, the scope is much broader with an optimized experience for cars and searchable trending topics - what an opportunity for universities who have corridors of thought-leaders to hand. My money is on University of Chicago to be one of the first to capitalise - it already has a great podcast network and could easily use its back catalogue to support live programming. Snap | Amazon
🏫 What unis are doing
University of Sunderland uses its new hero video to celebrate its students, rather than tell its story. In the space of a few minutes, you see a full spectrum of graduate careers and a fast introduction to a student’s social life. It ends by saying “the only reason we’re here is to get you there”, which I think is refreshing to see at a brand level. One to bookmark for when your own hero piece is up for review. Look
University of Toronto knows how to capture a student story. Its latest series of Meet U of T’s are super polished and have distinctive quirks - the soundtrack, the b-roll, the narrative - everything seems well thought out, like it locked on to a vibe and went full tilt. Jonathan Blumenthal’s story about landing his first writing gig on a video game project is one to watch. His laugh at 1:04 genuinely makes me smile too. Great editing. Look
University of Queensland won an award for its alumni magazine Contact - and I can see why. The journalism is strong and it looks more like a copy of Wired than a typical prospectus-like publication. Shout out too to Rice University’s Rice Magazine that has a circulation of 60K (!!!) and paints a vivid picture of its community. For unis, there’s a real opportunity in high-end print publications. Why? Because a lot of institutions shuttered their programmes during peak pandemic. Now, there’s way less competition and a chance to offer a different kind of experience. If digital is all about leaning forward and getting things done, print is the place students can lean back, explore “fit” and picture whether they see themselves at your university. Queensland | Rice
Bonus: Wharton Business School is accepting crypto as payment for a class titled "Economics of Blockchain and Digital Assets”. I mean, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t, but it shows how digital currencies and the bigger world of web3 are making their way to the most traditional parts of the sector. Read
🧑🎓 What students are saying
“It was terrible. Too many roommates [meant] no cohesion or standards. The lack of windows was depressing. Munger is about as out of touch as billionaires come.” Students on the halls designed by donor, Charlie Munger, who proudly acknowledges he has no training in architecture. Read
👾 Culture shock
MrBeast’s Squid Game sets seem to be coming along nicely. Look
Remote workers are picking up property in rural Italy for as little as £0.75. Look
