#iwas Social Campaign
Award-winning social campaign celebrating the power of lifelong learning. Our hero assets featured a range of alumni, including Paralympian Darren Harris, explaining how OU advocates could get involved and share their story. The week-long campaign reached 8.8 million and brought in just under 1,000 student success stories which were then used at a Parliamentary event on Higher Education.
UK So Me Comms Awards 2017
#iwas
“Judges saw a campaign which challenged itself to engage an existing audience using credible advocates. A great example of using social media on a minimal budget to achieve superb engagement with measurable results.”
Effective Digital Marketing Masterclassing Awards 2018
Most Effective Social Campaign
#iwas
“The Open University (OU) was up against some big guns in this category, but triumphed with a minuscule budget of under £10,000. As one of the judges remarked: “I loved how simple the campaign was, yet it was engaging and inspiring.”
The aim of the campaign was to highlight the importance of part-time distance learning (and the OU’s role as a key provider) in the run up to the Government’s Industrial Strategy, which focuses on Higher Education for 18 to 21-year olds, and the positive impact on the UK skills gap and wider economy. Under the umbrella of lifelong learning the OU wanted to empower its community – aged from 18 through to 80 – to share their stories and prove Higher Education should be available to all.
The OU decided to use social media to tell a story highlighting how many people could not upskill, reskill, progress or change their career without flexible, part-time education. An initial series of content was created to set the scene for the campaign, make the campaign aims clear and showcasing some pre-prepared case studies to inspire others to share their own stories.
This content included an explainer video by honorary graduate and OU alumnus Darren Harris who explained the crux of the campaign and what the OU wanted people to do. There was also an OU News story explaining the campaign with a link to get involved. And three further case study videos, as well as a series of photos from current students or graduates, which were shared on the OU’s channels and their own.
The social call-to-action was to ask the community to share the age they were when they started studying and the reasons why, using the hashtag “#iwas…” ideally with a photo of themselves, and the hashtag #lifelonglearning. The content was collated on Twitter by creating and sharing a Twitter moment.
The campaign was incredibly successful. The content created is timeless, can be used over and again to support university objectives and messages, and repurposed at each stage of the Industrial Strategy. As a second judge commented: “While # campaigns are often temporary, this is the perfect example of a larger strategy that can live beyond the digital space. The pride and celebration of those who have succeeded as part of their experience is extremely powerful and forever relevant. In the education industry people want to see and be moved by real stories and this campaign does it brilliantly.”
Over a 22 day period, the total reach was 9m, smashing the target of 5.5m. The OU received 639 success stories from its student community, and saw 7,400k clickthroughs to its #iwas landing page on the OU News website. This generated 6,400 engagements (likes or shares) and 837 retweets or shares. Social media posts were 100 per cent organic, with no money was spent on promoting these posts or any of the campaign content.
At a Parliamentary briefing hosted by the OU’s Vice-Chancellor at Westminster, as well as being displayed in the background, the Vice-Chancellor referenced some of the student stories from the campaign in his opening remarks. This helped illustrate the importance and benefit of easy and flexible routes to learning throughout life – something the UK increasingly needs in order to meet the economic and social challenges ahead.
The briefing was a success in enhancing the OU’s parliamentary visibility as a key player in lifelong learning debate. In addition, the OU’s Student Recruitment & Finance Team said the #Iwas campaign generated enquiries from prospective students because the messages from the student and alumni community were so positive and inspiring.
The #Iwas campaign was also widely talked about across campus by staff – it was seen as a positive and motivating campaign by academic and support staff during a period of significant change at the university.
All in all, a tremendous campaign that proves you don’t always need a big budget to win an award.”
