Overview
Midlands Enterprise Universities is a consortium of six universities (Birmingham City, Coventry, Derby, Lincoln, Nottingham Trent and Wolverhampton) working together to drive productivity through skills, innovation and enterprise.
Objectives
- Promote the significant collective expertise, assets and partnerships with businesses that the MEU wishes to bring together for the benefit of the region
- Highlight the differentiating characteristics of the MEU HEIs and the MEU consortium from other similar organisations
- Raise awareness of MEU among target external and internal audiences
Approach
The first phase of the work involved creating a brand toolkit, conducting a stakeholder audit and setting key performance indicators, prioritising coverage in key target media and a significant increase in online and offline stakeholder engagement.
Subsequently we developed a ten-month PR and engagement plan with an emphasis on geographical and sector coverage, aligned to the MEU’s objectives.
During the second phase of the contract we have promoted and attended key events including a digital partnerships conference at Coventry University and set up and managed the MEU’s social media profiles, significantly increasing followers and engagement. We also gained national coverage in The Times for the launch of the Midlands Credit Compass framework which was supported by the Office for Students. The initial 10-month contract was extended by a further six months encompassing media relations, news releases, stakeholder communications, social media, digital marketing and event support.
Working with the MEU means also working with a diverse range of high-level partners, including the universities themselves, the Office for Students and the Midlands Engine.
Results
- 29 articles in key media including the Times Higher Educational Supplement with a total reach of almost one million
- Over 350 Twitter followers and 200,000 impressions between October 2018 and October 2019
- Launched the Midlands Credit Compass framework gaining national coverage in The Times and Good University Guide.
Our communications to stakeholders have been transformed since we have been working with Shooting Star. The team were adept at understanding our unique needs as a university partnership and helped us to create a stronger voice and identity.
They created and manage our online social media presence, which gains more engagement and followers on a monthly basis, and have successfully raised our profile in the national media through several campaigns. We really enjoy working with the Shooting Star team, as they are imaginative, proactive and professional, as well as being really nice people!
