Research: Target Audience

Through reading the brief, the target audience stated are all university students. This audience will be accessed through university media and online, in autumn 2018. As stated in the brief, there is a limited media budget and the campaign therefore needs to stand out against the other freshers' content that is online and in the public.


'Their smartphone is often the last thing they look at before going to sleep and

the first thing they look at the next morning. The average student will scroll

through over 300ft of content each day.'  - This is an important recognition by Art Pass. 

In a research study by Alex Chalk MP, YoungMinds and The Children's Society, it has been found that from the 1,089 respondents, 93% of the over 18s reported to be using Facebook however on a whole the most popular platform is YouTube, with 85% of the respondents engaging with content on this form of social media. The use of video is the main function of YouTube, with the ability to post and share video more frequent on Facebook also. 

Video is a direction to explore in response to this brief. It is a form that would allow for the information to be quickly received on a range of different online and offline platforms. 

Through a discussion with university peers, the importance of student discounts was made by each individual. The discounts that are offered through companies such as NUS Extra and UniDays are known by all students. Many said they became aware of these discounts from the advertisements on social media as well as word of mouth in education. However, as NUS Extra is a paid for 'service', many students expressed their lack of support to this due to other free alternatives being available. This is important to consider when responding to the brief as the payment for the card will affect the level of interest of students.

Middlesex University, London. Student Communications Survey, June 2016. Social Media sub-report.  

2121 Students surveyed:
- 71% of students admitted to using social media at least once a day
- WhatsApp and Facebook are the more commonly used channels ( 83% and 77%)
- Instagram and YouTube are both also used by over 50% of students
- 67% of students say that social media is a preferred channel of communication for community information (e.g. events and University news)
- Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram are all channels that students would be happy to use to engage with the University
- 59% of students follow University Facebook pages for information