Manchester Metropolitan University: how to win a gold CILIP award
Congratulations to IngentaConnect customer Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Library, which recently won a prestigious national marketing award for promotional materials used during their Welcome Campaign for new students. Each year, the Publicity & Public Relations Group (PPRG) of CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals) offers gold, silver and bronze awards for excellence in the marketing of libraries and their services. MMU Library received the gold award in the category of Integrated Marketing. This was the only gold award presented in any of PPRG's categories of marketing excellence for 2006. We thought other libraries could benefit from hearing about MMU Library's success, so asked Senior Assistant Librarian (Learning Technologies) Rosie Jones to write an eyetoeye article describing their campaign:
The Library Welcome Campaign is a staged process which avoids information overload and instead provides 'bite-sized' chunks of information about the Library and its services when required. The Campaign comprises a series of events employing a variety of delivery methods to try and capture the interest and imagination of new students:
- pre-enrolment mailshot of a Welcome flyer
- a stall at MMUnion Freshers' Fair
- a streamlined face-to-face Induction Session
- four Awareness Weeks covering student e-mail, renewals, library catalogue/reading lists and e-resources
The accompanying promotional materials, each featuring MMU Library's distinctive 'Get the knowledge' strapline, include posters, bookmarks, flyers, stickers, screensavers and postcards.
A key element of the Campaign was hosting a stall at Freshers' Fair. This huge event attracts thousands of students over two days. It gives the Library a great opportunity to market its services to students who may not voluntarily come into the Library in their first year and for library staff to speak to students away from the Library building in an informal location. By interacting with students in this way, staff can encourage new students to make use of the Library early in their course.
Promotional campaign materials were given away to students at the event, including stickers and bookmarks featuring famous Manchester people and MMU alumni. Many providers, such as Ingenta, kindly supplied the Library with other freebies for the stall. These freebies included large attractive Ingenta bags which proved so popular that even fellow stall holders were trying to get hold of them. The Library also gave away sweets and fortune cookies to further entice students to visit the stall. Students were surprised to see the Library in this environment, alongside other organisations such as student societies and local nightclubs, and said that they gained a new and positive impression of the Library and library staff. In total, the Library spoke to over 3,800 students during the two day event.
Academic staff felt that attendance at Freshers' Fair was an ideal way of promoting the Library Service to new students:
"Involvement in the Freshers' Fair was a brilliant idea. The university library can seem like a daunting place for a new student and this welcome campaign will help to overcome initial fears and anxieties. Going to where the students are in their first week, rather than waiting for the students to come to the library, will also help reach those who might skip induction sessions." (Senior Teaching and Learning Fellow at MMU)
Building upon the success of Freshers' Fair, the Library Welcome Campaign went on to deliver information about its services and resources to new students using a variety of innovative strategies. David Matthews, Manager of the Library's InfoSkills Team, said: "In their first few weeks at University, new students are bombarded with huge amounts of information essential to their academic careers. We feel that the Library's 'drip-feed' method of delivery and relevant, eye-catching materials help students to gain a knowledge and awareness of the Library's services and resources early in their university life."
The PPRG Gold Award for the Library's Welcome Campaign was awarded at PPRG's annual conference in November 2006. The award citation read as follows:-
"Manchester Metropolitan University Library has taken a very measured and focused approach to induction following wide consultation and benchmarking exercises. They have developed a timed programme in order to promote specific information over a period of weeks. The information is communicated to students when it will be most helpful to them. Their induction material has been carefully branded with appropriate design and complimented with engaging copy that will appeal to the students.
This is a text-book example of how to handle induction. Feed-back from students, the academic community and the profession has proved the value and success of this Welcome Campaign".
Freshers' Fair is certainly the most prominent aspect of the Library Welcome Campaign and its success stems from the generosity of suppliers such as Ingenta. Without freebies and giveaways the impact of the stall would not be as great. The Library's presence at Freshers' Fair certainly had the desired effect of encouraging students to use the Library. During the months that the campaign took place there was an overall increase in database usage compared to the previous year and it is clear that the Library Welcome Campaign has made a positive impact on students.
Our thanks to Rosie Jones and the InfoSkills team at MMU Library for contributing this piece to the eyetoeye newsletter. We invite other readers to share with us their own experiences and successes in publicising the library and its services – please contact Emily Taylor, emily.taylor@ingenta.com, if you have a story to tell.