Objectives
The student recruitment campaign was launched to boost recruitment for the 2005 intake. The objectives of the campaign were to
• Raise awareness of Birkbeck and build its profile among its core student markets
• increase enquiries about programmes at all levels of study
• increase attendance at open evenings

The Campaign
'Birkbeck changed my life' was a distinctive Birkbeck message that students at all levels responded well to.

An effective outdoor campaign relies on a simple message. Birkbeck needed to communicate many different messages to many different student groups but attempting to communicate them all at once was inadvisable. The previous year's campaign attempted this and became too complex and almost invisible. The 2005 Campaign identified one message that communicated something of the core Birkbeck experience. More complex messages appropriate to the level of study were used in follow-up communications.

Many of Birkbeck's prospective students are sophisticated, well-informed, working Londoners who are exposed to hundreds of marketing propositions as they go about their daily lives. In order to stand out, the Birkbeck message had to:
• be short – taking no more than a couple of seconds to absorb
• be aspirational and contain an emotional hook
• be unique to Birkbeck. This was vital. Messages that might apply to other HE providers
  were not an option. We wanted more than just a different logo for Birkbeck
• work for all students and across all levels of study
• be strong enough to run for at least two years.

'Birkbeck changed my life' met all the criteria and was used as the core message in the campaign.

The campaign was delivered through the following media:
• Internet
• London Underground
• Radio
• Press
• Direct Mail

The campaign drove all enquirers to a new 'Birkbeck changed my life' website. The response was impressive, 81,869 unique enquirers to the campaign website against 17,886 responses to the 2004 campaign.

Enquirers who booked to attend open evenings or asked for a prospectus left their personal details. This data was used to send a series of communications about Birkbeck. Attendance at open evenings rose steadily throughout the year with more than a third of all attendees being from the Birkbeck enquirer database, to whom personalised invitations were mailed.

Conclusions
The 'Birkbeck changed my life' campaign was very successful and generated higher awareness, just over 81,000 enquiries were received compared to nearly 18,000 in 2004. There was a 35% increase in open evening attendance.