Competing for the favour of student choosers and their parents
Like other universities of applied sciences, Avans must compete yearly for attention from secondary school students and their parents. This starts with orientation on different courses and schools. During this awareness and consideration phase, we aim to motivate potential students to attend open days.
There's one big 'but'. Young people find adverts annoying, according to research*. They dislike ads that are too long, pushy, or appear too often. Especially when it happens on their favourite social channels. 'Intrusive social media advertising' is not for them. Even more than half of young people are also annoyed by influencers. So how do you reach them?
*Source: Youth Research Mediahuis, Wayne Parker Kent 2024
How do you reach students who swipe away every advert?
A targeted, creative, and data-driven approach with various campaigns combining branding and activation. Branding focuses on Avans' brand positioning, while activation aims at signing up for open days and evenings.
About the Avans & iO partnership
Avans faces the same challenge as other universities of applied sciences: reaching young people and getting enough enrolments. Through a tender, we became the creative agency helping Avans with campaigns for potential students. This is partly due to our well-thought-out campaign strategy, social media knowledge, and 'customer experience' expertise. We understand the steps student choosers go through, from initial interest to registration, and connecting with their world.
"Content that appeals to young people can have a significant impact on your brand. In this crucial life phase, they discover who they are and develop brand preferences. By tapping into their interests and values, you not only increase engagement but also the positive perception of your brand."
Derk van Bokkem, Online Marketing Advisor at Avans University of Applied Sciences
Our approach: Branding and activation in data-driven campaigns
To reach students and their parents, you can't just broadcast. You must connect. Show that you understand them and involve them, so they feel heard. Only then will they stop scrolling and actually see your advert.
So, we decided to let several Avans students play the main roles in our campaigns. We tap into the interests and daily lives of Gen Z.
Recognisable scenes with a twist
We have a scene between a mother and son. The son casually answers every question with a nonchalant "I dunno". Until his mother gives him a devilish look and he quickly starts googling: "What should I study?"
Another shows a boy acting out 8 types of students. For example, the stress-head who's always panicking, the know-it-all who points out a typo to the teacher, the teacher's pet who gets an "oat cappuccino" for his teacher, and the latecomer who's still in bed at 8:38 AM. This shows there's a place for every student at Avans.
These are just a few examples. The campaigns feature many more relatable scenes for young people - or in fancy words, 'relatable content' - that we give a twist. All part of our See-Think-Do strategy where we guide students to Avans and engage them through branding and activation:
See: Create awareness by introducing the student to Avans and its positioning.
Think: Increase relevance and intention by emphasising Avans' main Unique Selling Points (USPs). And encourage sign-ups for study choice activities.
Do: Activate the target group to sign up for study choice activities and a course at Avans.
Continuous data-driven adjustments
Together with Avans, we experiment with both creative and traditional content. Data shows that relatable content yields more conversions. But in collaboration with marketing partner DEPT, we keep evaluating and measuring other expressions.
We constantly test which content performs best. We assess whether the expressions connect with Gen Z by showing different versions to students beforehand, for example in the canteen. Meanwhile, we monitor long-term effects on brand awareness, brand associations, and brand preference through brand research.
This way, we keep fine-tuning and optimising based on the latest insights.
"A smart and effective aspect of the campaign is that we use forms popular on different channels. For example, we film with a mobile phone. With platform-native content, students tend to watch longer and more often until the brand message. With normal adverts, they swipe or scroll through much faster."
Michiel de Nijs, Creative Director iO
Numbers that speak for themselves
0.87
16.24
66941
7.18
2.6
Want to capture attention too?
Reaching students is an art. Just like catching your attention in the hustle of the day. But if you've made it this far, we've succeeded. Want to capture your target audience's attention too?
With our creative and data-driven approach and future-oriented vision, we ensure results that stick. Let's take your brand to new heights together.
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What we did
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