The Singapore Management University’s undergraduate admissions campaign 2013 ‘SMU – A Different U’ has netted a string of awards at the recent Marketing Excellence Awards 2013.
SMU was announced the Silver winner for ‘Excellence in Advertising’ for a second year in a row and garnered silver in the ‘Excellence in Integrated Marketing (Consumer)’ category.
The university also gained bronze awards for brand awareness, content marketing as well as marketing communications. Last year, SMU’s Marketing team bagged two wins at the awards; the Silver in the ‘Excellence in Advertising’ award and the Bronze award in Excellence in Integrated Marketing (Consumer).
In order to compete with more established and other up-and-coming higher education institutions and, to stand out from the crowd, SMU launched the successful undergraduate admissions campaign which resulted in significantly improving the visual appeal of the university’s brand.
The integrated Undergraduate Admissions campaign, which was designed to build brand awareness, engage prospective students and drive traffic to SMU’s undergraduate admissions website, extended the audience experience beyond the traditional print platform. Apart from striking imagery of successful alumni that was published in the local newspapers, multimedia was heavily used in the "A Different U" campaign which included nine YouTube videos that featured real students who shared their unique journeys and experiences in SMU(http://admissions.smu.edu.sg/content/video-stories). The use of YouTube videos in particular has proven very effective. The videos generated more than 10,000 visits in 2013 compared to only 812 last year and reached viewers in 126 countries, gaining worldwide attention from USA, India, Russia as well as in Southeast Asia. The videos were part of an online graduate gallery created to showcase the success stories of past graduates.
Besides digital media, the campaign was complemented by a suite of outdoor and ambient advertising around the SMU campus in the form of large-format wall stickers and posters that reinforce the SMU value propositions.
“We are continually exploring innovative ways to talk to our target audiences, particularly through social media. With greater competition in the tertiary space in 2013, the effectiveness of the marketing in this campaign is evident. SMU continued to receive high numbers in terms of undergraduate applications,” SMU Vice President, Corporate Communications & Marketing, Alan Goh said.
“I’m delighted to have the hard work and innovation of our marketing team rewarded with success in such prestigious awards against such notable competition. To be right alongside big brands like Singtel and McDonalds is truly an honour.”
Held at the Pan Pacific Singapore, the Marketing Excellence Awards recognised and honoured the very best of Singapore’s marketing across various disciplines. Over 70 client-side organisations and more than 50 agencies made it to the final round, and winners were selected by a judging panel consisting of senior-level marketers from a wide range of industries.
ABOUT MARKETING EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2013
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 Marketing Excellence Awards recognises those organisations that have pushed their brand(s) towards measurable success, through sound and innovative marketing strategies.
23 categories presenting 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 marketers, agency professionals and industry experts. More information on the Awards can be found here: http://mea-awards.com/SG/index.html
[Featured photo: Members of SMU’s Corporate Marketing team(From left) Annie Tseu; Anna Ragen (from Wild Advertising & Marketing Pte Ltd); Tan Huiyi (from Wild Advertising & Marketing Pte Ltd); Hill Tan; Ivan Yap; Benny Toh, Head of Corporate Marketing; Rosanne Luo; Rayana Pandey (Editor of Marketing Interactive and presenter of award); Yunn Goh and Max Ng]
