Giving Anglia Ruskin University's campaign a whole new purpose

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By Jon Kirk

The recent pandemic has seen a lot of changes in the Higher Education sector. Whether they be challenging or adventurous, universities are making decisions daily on what they should do going forward.

One university that took that in their stride, is Anglia Ruskin University.

Back in late February we were well underway with a new campaign for ARU’s nursing courses. We had the media activity all ready to go, the scripts had been signed off and the work was being produced.

Then, the pandemic hit.

The key messages from the campaign never seemed more apparent in society – The world will always need nurses. And that Nursing is A Job. For Life. But we had to be sensitive. The world was in turmoil, and we knew it wouldn’t be appropriate to put these messages out just yet. This wasn’t about riding on the coat tails of a pandemic and releasing it this early could come across exactly like that.

So, we waited.

As life settled down, and social distancing became second nature, the world grew accustomed to this new way of living. The NHS were clapped for every Thursday. Military personnel were walking their gardens to raise money for the NHS – and being knighted for it. The NHS were being recognised for all of their hard work and being praised for it. We were all in awe of how our NHS were handling the pandemic. It seemed the perfect time to encourage people to study towards becoming a nurse. We edited the scripts, and rescheduled the videos and social posts – now, they all shared a message of thanks to the NHS at the end.

In late April the campaign went live across social channels, as well as being featured on Channel 4’s on demand service, and Sky TV.