Save a Few Bob with Varsity
- Date
- 12/10/2011
As the start of the University year begins, the team at Varsity, Barracuda’s award-winning student brand, already have their plans in place to deliver their 2011/12 VCard campaign, entitled ‘Save a few Bob’.
The campaign also sees a shift from more traditional methods of communication as Varsity migrates the whole of their website content onto Facebook.
The ‘Save a few Bob’ campaign has been influenced by the way that Varsity’s target audience shops, behaves and communicates with one another. The campaign combines retro influences, vintage chic and icons from a bygone era, using terminology and imagery that is clean, classy, sophisticated and humorous.
Myles Doran, Head of Marketing at Barracuda Pub Group said: “This campaign talks to our customers in a playful manner and in a tone of voice that they understand. The language that we’ve used in the campaign entertains all audiences and holds a dialogue with customers that will long outlast Freshers Week, giving the campaign longevity.
“We’ve also made sure that not every piece of communication is trying to crack a gag or be provocative for the sake of it; today’s students are more mature and savvy than they’ve ever been. Our challenge is to make sure that our campaigns remain fresh and relevant to our target audience and I’m confident that we’ve got that balance right.”
Speaking about the move away from a traditional website to supplying all of the content on Facebook, Simon Gaske, Sales & Digital Marketing Manager for Barracuda said: “It’s a brave move but one that we believe will work, essentially we’re updating our online strategy. Research has shown that 96% of students are using Facebook as a daily source for all their communication.
“By replacing the designated Varsity website and migrating to Facebook with the Varsity hub we can interact with our customers in a way that they prefer, as well as bringing them a more social and intuitive experience.”
Earlier in the year, Barracuda announced that it had fined tuned the brand to create a top of the class portfolio of 22 sites. The result was a next generation portfolio of Varsity venues which sees the bars with an urban yet softer look with clearly defined zones to accommodate different occasions, appealing to both students and young professionals.
Each year the latest intake of freshers arrive looking to adopt a new pub for the forthcoming year, the VCard campaign targets those customers so they engage with the Varsity brand. The campaign activity will be backed up with a sales strategy and party planner hotline to ensure the online activity converts into footfall and sales in the pubs.
Pub managers will be launching the campaign as the students return over the next couple of weeks with on-the-ground activity at freshers’ fairs to generate awareness that includes giveaways, fancy dress outfits, sandwich boards and megaphones along with weird and wonderful street stunts that will stop traffic and create a buzz around the award-winning brand.
