University of Lincoln - Summer Enrolment Campaign

Clearing is always the most competitive point in the student recruitment cycle. For the University of Lincoln in 2025, attendance at earlier stages was strong, but applications fell slightly short of where they needed to be. To turn this around, the campaign had to cut through the noise, capture attention across multiple channels, and convert interest into applications.

Formats Used
OOH, Bus, Rail, TikTok, Meta, YouTube, Google

Challenge
Lincoln needed to achieve a net positive intake by Clearing. Awareness was already in place, but application numbers were behind target. The challenge lay in filtering an already engaged audience through to conversion, while standing out against competing universities that were flooding the market with familiar, predictable campaigns. The task was to reach both students and parents with impact and reassurance, while making Lincoln feel culturally relevant.

Approach
Having taken a bold change in creative stance, the campaign was built around placements that maximised coverage and resonated with the intended audience. Planning began with detailed audience mapping, combining UCAS data, online behaviour patterns, and offline movement data. This gave us a clear view of where to meet students and parents, and how to layer channels so they worked together.

OOH placements were chosen for visibility in high-footfall areas, supported by bus and rail formats that captured commuter and family audiences. Digital activity on TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and Google complemented this by hitting decision-making touchpoints, from discovery to application searches. Each platform was planned with its role in mind: short-form content for awareness, search-led activity for conversion, and retargeting journeys to keep prospects engaged.

By combining cultural insight with data-led planning, the media strategy ensured every channel played a part in filtering audiences towards the Clearing hotline and online application portal.

Results
The approach delivered against every measure. Application targets were met and surpassed, with a final intake more than 25 percent higher than the original target. Clearing hotline calls spiked throughout the campaign, digital engagement rose sharply, and the work secured national coverage alongside widespread online debate. The campaign was also named by Terminal Four as one of the top 20 most disruptive Clearing campaigns of the year.

Impact
Lincoln reinforced its position as a confident, forward-looking university. By matching bold creative with a data-led, audience-first media plan, the campaign not only delivered the numbers but also shifted how Lincoln was seen across the higher education sector. It showed that student recruitment can be both effective and culturally relevant when planned with precision.