Inspirational welcome for our new students

Allie Burnett
Jenna studied in Indiana for a year
Jenna studied in Indiana for a year by Jenna

Allie Burnett from Corporate Communications talks through her Welcome Campaign, including the campaign’s aims and what it achieved.

Starting university is an exciting but also daunting time for our new students. We want to make sure students are not only well-informed but feel welcome and inspired when arriving on campus.

This year, I wanted the Welcome Campaign to inspire our new students to get involved in extracurricular activities by showcasing some of the amazing things students have done at Kent. The campaign featured:

The Welcome Campaign was up across campus during the first few weeks of term on bus stops, lampposts, plasma screens, buildings and more.

We also put a ‘Welcome to Kent’ greeting card in each of the study bedrooms on the Canterbury campus and in Liberty Quays at Medway. The cards included an inspirational welcome message from the University:

Kent welcome postcard example 01Kent welcome postcard example 04

As well as traditional media, this campaign was drip-fed across our social media channels and we ran a selfie competition for arriving students:

Kent selfies example

View the complete set of brilliant selfies on Flickr.

UKC Student helped students move in and register at Canterbury and UKM Student did the same at Medway. The student tweeters were on campus and live tweeting throughout Arrivals Weekend. They answered questions from students (on social media and in person), helped manage queues and supported staff throughout this busy weekend.

This year we also created a short video guide to Arrivals Weekend. Watch the video below:

Did it work?

As a result, we received thank you messages from new students and significant traffic to the student website which was featured on all the campaign artwork.

 

The stats

  • 600,663 Student Guide views (6 Sept – 6 Oct 2015) – that’s more than the University homepage for the same time period! Visitors also increased by 5.6% on last year.
  • 2,210 video views

Each year we aim to improve the Welcome Campaign. If you have any recommendations for the future, please email Allie on a.c.burnett@kent.ac.uk.

 

Special thanks

This campaign wouldn’t be possible without the help of colleagues from across the University and beyond, including:

  • Alison Lidster from Liberty Quays
  • Carol Leonard
  • Charlotte Ifill
  • Clara Lee (aka UKC Student)
  • Clare Saunders
  • Emma Nevill
  • Hannah White
  • Ian White
  • Jayne Hornsby
  • Jim Higham
  • Karen Baxter
  • Kathryn Nevitt
  • Katie MacFarlane
  • Lesley Farr
  • Mary Hughes
  • Matt Wilson
  • Miles Banbery
  • Mo Headicar
  • Naomi Evans
  • Nat Tipping (aka UKM Student)
  • Nathan Crouch
  • Rosanna Callow
  • Wendy Raeside
  • Zarina Hawkins