The University of Derby entered Clearing 2024 in one of the most competitive higher education landscapes to date. The brief was clear: fill course capacity during a fast-moving, high-pressure recruitment window while maintaining a strong, student-first message.

Our role was to lead a joined-up digital campaign that aligned paid media, creative and messaging across channels, ensuring prospective students felt informed, supported and confident in their decision. The campaign’s impact and innovation led to it being nominated for a HEIST Award, recognising excellence in education marketing.

Challenge

Clearing moves quickly, and course availability can change daily. The challenge was to stay relevant in real time while speaking to very different audiences — school leavers making last-minute decisions, mature students considering a return to education, and parents influencing the final choice.

Previous activity risked becoming fragmented across platforms. We needed a single, coherent approach that balanced urgency with reassurance, while cutting through a crowded market during one of the busiest periods in the academic calendar.

Approach

We built a data-led strategy shaped around how students actually make Clearing decisions. Audiences were segmented into clear groups, allowing messaging to reflect different motivations, concerns and priorities at each stage of the journey.

Paid media activity across Google, Bing and social platforms was structured to adapt quickly, with creative and copy updating in line with live course availability. This ensured messaging remained accurate, timely and trustworthy throughout the campaign.

Creative focused on confidence and clarity. Student stories, campus-led visuals and platform-native formats were used to show what life at Derby looks like, not just what courses were available. A key content strand, Get Ready for Uni, featured Derby alumnus Baasit Siddiqui, providing practical advice and reassurance for students preparing for university life.

Close collaboration between strategy, creative and media teams allowed the campaign to be monitored and optimised continuously, ensuring momentum was maintained even as conditions changed.

Impact

The Clearing 2024 campaign strengthened the University of Derby’s position as a confident, student-focused institution during a critical recruitment window. Prospective students encountered clear, supportive messaging that helped them move from uncertainty to action.

Paid and organic channels worked together to build trust before application, while dynamic creative ensured the university stayed relevant throughout Clearing. The campaign’s success and innovation were recognised with a HEIST Award nomination, highlighting its effectiveness, creativity and collaborative execution.

The result was a scalable, repeatable Clearing framework that continues to inform how the University of Derby approaches future recruitment campaigns.