Talk about the 2012 Singapore Management University (SMU) Undergraduate Admissions campaign making an impact. Following its recent win of a Silver award at the prestigious SPH IINK Awards in August, the memorable campaign has won the University not one, but two more accolades – this time at the inaugural Marketing Excellence Awards 2012.
At these first awards organised by Marketing Magazine to recognise the creative work of client-side marketers, SMU bagged the Silver in the pinnacle ‘Excellence in Advertising’ award as well as the Bronze award in Excellence in Integrated Marketing (Consumer).
The integrated Undergraduate Admissions campaign, which was designed to build brand awareness, engage prospective students and drive traffic to SMU’s campaign admissions website, extended the audience experience beyond the traditional print platform. QR codes on the print-ads brought readers to online videos of the personalities in the campaign who shared their SMU experiences, thereby bringing their stories to life and in a manner that connects very well with prospective students and their parents. Besides the effective use of digital media, the campaign was complemented by a suite of outdoor advertising around the SMU campus in the form of large-format wall stickers and posters that reinforce the SMU value propositions.
The results speak for themselves. Not only did the SMU Undergraduate Admissions website garner a significant 50% year-on-year increase in the number of visits, the number of ‘unique visitors’ was also up by 72%, from 76,589 in March-May 2011 to 131,685 in March-May 2012. The fan base of the SMU Admissions Facebook page also grew by 33.8%, from 5,001 to 6,689, and with a high engagement rate of 2.1%.
(Above: A snapshot of the 2012 Undergraduate Admissions campaign)
Said Alan Goh, Vice President, SMU Corporate Communications & Marketing, “The primary focus is to generate awareness, convince prospective students of our value propositions and to motivate them to apply to SMU. The 14,000 plus applicants and record 1,900 student intake are a testament to the collective efforts of the SMU eco-system to achieve this success.
Along the way, to pick up a couple of marketing awards is really a bonus. The bigger prize in my reckoning is the pride and joy – and the motivation – that such wins bring to the SMU Corporate Communications & Marketing team and our agency, Wild! Advertising. It certainly goads us to live up to such high standards of creativity in the coming years.”
About Marketing Excellence Awards 2012
The Marketing Excellence Awards is Singapore's premier event celebrating excellence across the marketing communications services spectrum. From unique one-offs to long term campaigns and programmes, the Awards recognise those organisations that have pushed their brand(s) towards measurable success, through sound and innovative marketing strategies.
Nineteen categories representing key marketing disciplines were put up for contest. Winners of the Marketing Excellence Awards represent the best in the business, and will be featured in a special annual supplement used by marketers and agencies as an invaluable benchmarking resource. The finalists and winners announced were decided by a distinguished panel of judges comprising senior professionals from agencies, and academics and experts from the industry. More information on the Awards can be found here: http://mea-awards.com/SG/index.html