How Totem tapped into millennials on a global scale to promote study abroad in Queensland
Case Study – Totem Advisory and Studio works across all social platforms with some of the most recognised brands in the world, and has established its position as an industry leader across APAC. Totem has unveiled the success of its #SummerLifeQLD campaign, showing massive returns for its client, Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ).
The campaign’s objective was to promote Queensland as the premiere location for international students looking to spend a semester studying abroad. From a field of thousands, Totem helped narrow the field down to just 20. Part of its detailed end to end strategy for Summer Life Queensland and the winning ambassadors from 10 countries involved arming them with an intensive crash course in social media and video creation, as well as their own vlogging camera.
Totem and TIQ tasked each ambassador with the creation of a series of videos and images that would chronicle their experience as an international student studying in Queensland. The result; over 11,000 pieces of content promoting uni life in Queensland on their personal social media channels. This content was then incorporated into the production of a web series comprising of 10 episodes, broadcast in 8 different languages, reaching millions of prospective international students. Over 500,000 likes, comments and shares across the campaign and ambassador content showcased an extraordinary level of authentic engagement around the world.
Says Steve Crombie, CEO and founder, Totem Advisory & Studio: “The Summer Life QLD campaign was about giving Trade and Investment Queensland education providers a direct and unfiltered line of communication to a global market of millennials who are considering studying abroad. We created a rich ecosystem of authentic experiences told by real life student ambassadors (both in english and their respective language) for prospective international students.”
The bonus results of increased traffic to Study QLD’s Summer Life QLD page on its website exceeded TIQ’s expectations throughout the 6 month long campaign. Its social media traffic increased dramatically from 0.8% of overall traffic to 33.8%, and traffic to Study QLD’s enquiries page increased by 40% over the course of the campaign.
Says Crombie: “It’s a common thought among our industry that millennials are a very difficult demographic to market to. We know that they don’t respond to traditional advertising, or simply don’t watch ads at all. By 2019, 92% of all internet use will be video. We used data and insights to create video content that we knew our audience wanted to watch, and we rolled it out using platforms that we know they engage with; Youtube, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. We are refining our intelligence to create effective sales funnels with video every day.”
Summer Life QLD content and the associated user generated content from the 20 ambassadors reached over 11 million prospective international students, had over 4 million views in the 10 targeted global markets, and generated more than 500,000 likes, comments and shares. This massive amount of video engagement and views (across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram) is more than the top five QS world ranked universities in Australia combined over the past six months.
The last episode is released today 28th of March.