Newsletter #57: University of Chichester is killing it on TikTok; Google’s new take on the post-cookie world; An AI Twitch stream is a deep dive into insanity
✏️ From the Education Marketer desk
Most Clicked Show: Nathan, Matt and I check-in on the state of remote and flexible work in higher ed. Watch
📰 HE news
The OFS has published its very detailed definition and metrics for what constitutes (in the words of anti-universities minister Michelle Donelan) a low-value, “Micky Mouse” course. There’s nothing that surprising, but in the category of “progression” i.e. the number of students getting a graduate job - it’s a slightly intimidating 60% for a pass. It doesn’t sound that high, but this applies at the subject level, so universities will need consistant performance across the board, rather than relying on a handful of high performing, high volume courses to offset the rest. Things aren’t helped with the progression statistic requiring graduates to fill out the Graduate Outcomes Survey, which, arguably, is harder to do than getting them into full-time graduate roles. Read
📊 Marketing and media news
McDonald’s has done a podcast deal with one of its former drive-thru employees. All the hallmarks of Gen-Z marketing are present: “Community story-telling”, the aim of “authentic connection” and McDonald’s wanting its “fans” to know that they are heard - but for me, the real story is that content marketing is changing. It used to be the case that putting out branded content was enough, but increasingly, and with the rise of the creator economy, I’m seeing individuals being front and centre of content efforts. Look at Milad Mirg, a YouTuber and Subway worker who told stories while making sandwiches - he ended up getting a sponsorship deal from Subway itself. For universities, perhaps it’s looking to students who are already creating great content about your brand. Ask yourself: Can you work with these creators in some novel or interesting way? Is there a unique angle that no other uni can copy? You may get better results working with a handful of home-grown creators than a truckload of outside influencers. Subway stories | McDonald’s podcast deal
After Google’s alternative to third-party cookies “FLoC” didn’t take off, the company is ready to launch a test with Topics - a new, tracking cookie-free, way to target users online. Every week, Topics will assess your browsing data and assign a range of “topics” reflecting your interests. Advertisers can then target, anomalously, based on browsing data. Good in theory, but topic data is only held for a maximum of three weeks, which given the sales cycle of higher ed, doesn’t really fit the bill. There’re 11 months to go until the end of the cookie… For sure, 2022 is a good year to have your first-party data and partnership strategies nailed down. Read
Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard for a staggering $69 billion. To put that in context, the total value of the gaming market today is $174 billion, although that is expected to hit $365 billion by 2025. Headlines seem to be billing this as the new “Netflix for games” but we already have Game Pass which is bigger than Apple TV - so why spend so much? One word: Metaverse. Games are good at building micro-economies and, you know, digital worlds… So, whereas Facebook’s play for the metaverse was a founder video and a rebrand. Microsoft’s was acquiring the world’s gaming studios. Read
🏫 What unis are doing
Denver Ad School’s website is a masterclass in tone of voice. Conversational with irreverence on tap, I’ve never seen graduate starting salaries referred to as “big sexy numbers” or a 404 page with the heading “Oh shit, this page has vanished into thin air.” Overall, the School’s offer is distinctive, student work looks like it’s from a New York ad agency, and the website even has a merch page accessible from the main nav. Can you imagine? Look
University of Chichester is killing it on TikTok. It’s secret? Being completely unhinged. You get a student doing a stealthy campus tour (in full camo) at the community’s request; the POV of the one building on campus that was built in 1839; and, my favourite, a reaction vid about not being in the Russell Group. You can’t play it safe on TikTok. Look
Cornell University’s recent robotics video is as much about campus culture as it is research impact. A lot of research vids will focus on an interview with the project lead and have cutaways demonstrating tech, but here we’re introduced to research students, tinkering with equipment and talking about the human impact of all this stuff. Of course, the human angle in research isn’t new, but there’s something about the way this is shot that makes it more believable. The cynical marketer in me knows it’s staged, but you still get the sense that Cornell has a fun and inclusive research community. Look
🧑🎓 What students are saying
"I speak for myself and I think probably the vast majority of students, when I say that it's just a much lower quality of education online, the professors are the same calibre, obviously, but it's just so much harder to learn looking at a screen versus actually being in class and being able to engage with your professor and your peers.” US students on the online start to their Spring semester. Read
👾 Culture shock
“Death’s true face was the universe” - a one-hour Twitch stream generated by AI is a deep dive into insanity. Look
Meet the super fungible token: The NFT you can never own, but update with any jpeg you like. Good times. Look
