The University of Chichester
Challenge
Consolidate & Improve marketing/PR intelligence
The University's marketing and PR department is led by Senior Press Officer James Haigh, who is responsible for overseeing all marketing and PR activity including proactive, reactive and internal communications. Limited resources meant consolidation was key and the performance of open-source media intelligence could not mitigate the challenges the department faced:
1. Monitoring systems only provided top-level coverage
2. Near to non-existent strategy for engaging with journalists (other than local media)
3. Limited existing culture of producing reports or demonstrating a return on investment
4. Reliance on open-source tools with limited intelligence, top-line insights and reporting capability, therefore not accurately bridging the visibility gap, proving ROI or identifying opportunities
"From the outset, we were able to track news and social media coverage to determine which channels were most effective for a medium-sized university on the UK's south coast, which is an area full with a number of similarly-structured higher education organizations".
James Haigh, Senior Press Officer
Solution
Consolidated Media Intelligence
The University of Chichester now usesMeltwater'smedia intelligence platform to monitor mentions of key brand phrases and related terms, as well as trends and responses to messaging. In doing so, they solve the challenge of pulling high-quality, report-ready data which allows them to draw key insights and measure the impact of their work.
To help solve the problem of having limited resources, the University of Chichester also uses Meltwater media intelligence to expend fewer resources and to form key relationships with journalists and creatives.
As a result, they have been able to connect, engage and work with influencers, who play a key role in promoting the University. The department saves time and is able to set its focus on other pressing tasks. Meltwater's journalist contact management tool offers features such as contact lists, search filters, and outreach analysis that can be used by companies to identify relevant journalists, connect and monitor the correspondence.
For the University, forming these relationships has been key to engaging with potential students both on a national and international scale. This allows the University of Chichester to carve a unique tone and stand out among the 156 registered universities in the United Kingdom.
Summary
Meltwater Helps The University of Chichester
Automate Key Tasks
The University now has "a more efficient working environment, which allows the team to work dynamically (whether in or out of the office) and deal with the fast-paced nature of a modern press office". Using Meltwater "as an automated team member," James says "is like having another press officer on board!"
Carve a Unique Brand Voice
They can now build "greater two-way engagement with journalists and social media influencers."
Make Data-Driven Marketing Decisions
The University now has "improved reporting and evaluation, which helps to determine where to focus our efforts for the academic year."
