Newsletter #78: Student subject preferences are shifting; East Carolina University is preparing students for the creator economy; BeReal’s draw isn’t authenticity
✏️ From the Education Marketer desk
Student subject preferences are shifting. Read
The pandemic has made a career in healthcare a popular aspiration among children. Read
Livestreaming is an underrated marketing tactic. Read
More signs that “community” will be the big marketing trend of 2023. Read
📰 HE news
Michael Barber – former chair of the Office for Students – has been assigned to oversee the implementation of T Levels, Skills Bootcamps, and (drum roll, please) lifelong learning loans. I’m most excited about the latter. Given the growing demand for digital education (its flexibility, accessibility and low cost) lifelong learning feels like a good strategic bet - but there are challenges. So far, there’s little evidence of demand for short-course loans (within the existing framework for obtaining them.) Only twelve people took out financial support for the 104 pilot courses by the start of term this year. However, this might speak to the education on offer. If the focus is niche short courses for all walks of careers, you’re not going to capture demand with just a handful of programmes. It’s better that loans aren’t just limited to universities and are open for study at any provider. If an organisation can provide education (and pass various government checks) then why shouldn’t a student be able to access funding for its courses? Read
Following in the footsteps of Amazon, Fidelity Investments will offer its 18,000 employees free college education. The war for talent in the US is real. A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management shows that 48% of firms now offer graduate tuition assistance as part of their benefits packages. Walmart, Target, McDonald’s… All of them have programmes to help cover the cost of education. It’s a huge opportunity for higher ed and a way for marketers to address negative press surrounding the cost of tuition. There’s never been a better time for b2b university marketers to capture demand for enhanced staff education and training. Despite an economic downturn, the battle for talent (and its retention) remains fierce in the US. Read
📊 Marketing and media news
The no.1 reason people use BeReal isn’t “authenticity.” It’s simplicity. Recent research from GWI reveals that 34% of users say the app’s “ease of use” is their main reason for being there. Are you listening, Instagram? Interestingly, authenticity ranks behind community-focused reasons like “lets me see what my friends are doing” and “helps me feel more connected with others.” Yep - everywhere I look I see community being the big marketing trend of 2023. American Eagle is a good place to start if you’re interested in building on BeReal. It shares a daily promotion (a BeReal Deal!) to a small community of 1,000 friends. It isn’t a huge stretch to imagine a university sharing daily student creator content, peppered with the occasional promotion. But whatever the offer, it has to be unique: GWI shares that BeReal users are 2.5x more likely to want brands to be “exclusive” and 2.3x more likely to “improve their image.” The right education offer or access to an exclusive experience could help achieve both. How brands use BeReal | GWI Data
Meta seems to be pivoting from the Metaverse. To address investor fears and to refocus the company after 11,000 layoffs (that’s more than Twitter btw) Zuckerberg has declared WhatsApp as “the next major pillar of [Meta’s] business.” To start, you can now search businesses on WhatsApp, not just by name but by category and how local they are. It matters to students too. Globally, WhatsApp is ranked 3rd by students as the app they use to make study decisions, so if you’re not already set up with a business account, it’s worth getting it integrated with your enquiry management system. Similar to email, there are automations you can use to handle enquiries at scale, plus it integrates with Meta’s business suite i.e. you can have ads with CTAs to start conversations. Lots of potential and universal enough for international campaigns. Read
🏫 What unis are doing
East Carolina University has partnered with the no.1 creator on YouTube, Mr Beast. So, it begins! The impact of the creator economy is being felt across the world. 150 million creators joined the industry within the last two years and it’s changing the skills students require (and the kind of education they seek.) The partnership will provide an online course and CERTIFICATION for students in: Managing creator businesses, camerawork and how to drive audience/revenue growth. The course is designed for students preparing for a career in the creator economy, but also those seeking to start their own creator businesses. Legendary marketing. If you work in higher ed partnerships, programme design or careers and employability - now is the time to take advantage of the creator trend. Look
University of Manchester launched a £9 million student fund to address the cost of living crisis. Its students will receive a one-off payment of £170 (part-time students will receive £85) which given the cost of fuel, won’t go far, but it’s certainly one of the more generous offers out there. Actions across the sector have been varied. I was shocked to learn that food banks on campuses are now fairly commonplace. Aston University has one in its Students’ Union and Birmingham City University offers free toast, porridge or soup every day. It feels backwards. Across the UK, we have students paying £580 p/m for city centre accommodation (a bedroom) and then having to rock up to their union to eat. Retention is sure to take a hit this year. Manchester | Aston
One of University of Glasgow’s student creators covered the difference between a US and UK degree on YouTube. The topic is pretty well covered elsewhere but, thanks to search optimisation, it drew a healthy 1000 views. It’s no secret that YouTube’s a powerful search engine, but there are even more opportunities to optimise for social search on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Type in “best university for X” and you’ll find videos with tens if not hundreds of thousands of views for any given subject. It’s worth partnering with student creators to create content for valuable search terms - right now, relatively few universities are taking advantage. Look
🧑🎓 What students are saying
“Under the exhaustion of lockdowns and great uncertainty about the future, the loss of meaning is adding to young people’s sense of existential crisis. Crawling is a collective ritual for young people to release that feeling of being repressed, [it’s a way of using] meaninglessness to resist meaninglessness.” Students in China on (what I think) is the first protest movement to have its roots in Nihilism. Look
👾 Culture shock
AI image generators can now use real-life photos as prompts. Look
New meaning to the phrase “university beef.” Look
