[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”60px”][vc_custom_heading text=”PR agency results: ‘Korean Billy’s Student Guides’ for Unite Students” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”news-heading”][vc_column_text]Here are some recent PR agency results for a campaign we did for our client, Unite Students.
The idea:
Korean Billy is a YouTube sensation best known for his hilarious British dialect videos. Over 90k people have subscribed to see him pick apart UK accents and phrases – like Scouse, ‘Roadman’ / Londoner and Geordie.
We pitched a campaign, where we would work with Korean Billy to create a range of destination guides for students moving to a new city, with Unite Students. The guides would aim to help students feel more at home when they arrive at university.
Although a bold move by Unite Students as the idea was quite different to its previous campaigns, the brand decided to engage students through humour. With Korean Billy on board, we were hired!
40% of customers who use Unite Students’ accommodation are international students, so we thought we should create a video guide to living in the UK. Our client also told us which cities to focus on for the remaining guides – London, Bristol, Glasgow and Newcastle.
To make it authentic, we researched cultural quirks, accents and sayings that are typical of each place. We also looked at the food that people eat, the places they visit or go out to – making sure that it would appeal to students. Rather than selecting obvious things – we looked to online sources that talked about places in a way that only locals would know about, to include hidden gems or things that viewers who know the city might find amusing.
Once the research was finished from our side, Unite Students sent it to their teams who work in properties in those cities for their local knowledge.
Using the research, we wrote the scripts and sourced imagery – and worked with Korean Billy as he filmed and injected it with some of his magic!
To send out with the five video guides, we created five relevant releases and issued these far and wide.
The playlist of the videos can be watched here – and here’s the main UK guide:
The campaign was a hit and we’ve had some great PR agency results to date.
Results:
Outputs
We achieved around 80 pieces of coverage including The Sunday Times, The Scotsman, The Herald, The Drum and multiple regional outlets including Bristol 24/7, Newcastle Chronicle, Glasgow Evening Times and Heart West Country.
According to Coverage Book all titles that covered the story had a total online audience of 53.4m.
Take a look at the Coverage Book for this campaign here.
Combined video views – including content featured on Unite Student’s and Korean Billy’s social media – are at around 85k.
Outputs
Website traffic to the homepage www.unitestudents.com was up 37% during the 17th – 29th May, a period that involved the ‘Korean Billy’s Student Guides’ compared with 4th- 16th May.
What Korean Billy thinks
What Unite Students thinks
Aside from the above PR agency results, Unite Students gave us this sparkling testimonial.
Allie Parkes-Norris, External Communications Manager at Unite Students, said: “Radioactive PR really helped us to think differently about how we reached more and new audiences.
“The Korean Billy activity was part of our wider ‘The Leap’ campaign, which recognises that making the move to university is a complex life moment. As the UK largest student accommodation provider, we know the better prepared young people can be for that big leap to university, the more seamless that move will be for them.
“The Leap campaign urges teenagers, parents and guardians to engage and have conversations about the leap earlier, so students’ expectations will be more closer aligned to the reality of university life.
“Korean Billy was the perfect friendly face to introduce soon-to-be university students to some of the cities Unite Students are proud to call home and get them thinking about the move earlier. We’ve seen some great levels of engagement with this campaign activity and felt that Billy was the perfect ambassador to remind people that Unite Students strives to create a Home for Success for all student as they make the leap to university. “
Want some help developing a campaign for your brand?
We’re a friendly bunch and would love to hear what your needs are, so drop us a line at pr@radioactivepr.com or call us on 01452 698765![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
