Universities advertise on Orange Shots to fill vacant course places

NMA 19 August 2010

British universities are using the Orange Shots messaging service to advertise places on their courses during this year’s clearing process.

Orange-owned sales house Unanimis and specialist agency Educate will sell advertising opportunities to universities targeting Orange subscribers that registered interest in their courses.

The campaigns will go live today (Thursday) as students receive their A-level results, with up to six institutions understood to have booked ads on the platform.

The news comes as government ministers have warned that up to 200,000 students could fail to get places on their preferred university courses because of an increase in application numbers.

Dan Beynon, Educate’s commercial director, said, “Campaigns such as this are important for universities this year because there aren’t enough university places to meet demand. A lot of people are expecting there to be a record number of students with good grades who will be looking for a place at university come results day.”

Up to 16 universities, including the University of Central Lancashire, used the Blyk Media messaging platform (now part of Orange Shots) to advertise their courses last year.

Blyk reported that 13% of its subscribers who received messages advertising the University of Central Lancashire responded, while 2% of those contacted called and enquired about courses.

“I think a lot of people appreciate the popularity of mobile phones with young people, and that using mobile messaging is a good way to contact them,” said Beynon.