Earlier this year, our team got in touch with a representative from Keele University's SU to discuss launching their very own student marketplace and running a campaign to onboard students for the 2018/19 academic year.
Keele University is small, rural campus university in Staffordshire. The university has a beautiful 615-acre campus with woodland, grassland, lakes and a Sustainability Hub on site.
The university is famed for it's natural and environmental science courses and recently hit the headlines by launching Europe's first smart energy lab facility.
The University runs the 'Green Keele' project which strives to "embed sustainability across all activities, spanning research, education, business processes, campus and community, as well as external engagement with partners and business." The Keele Students’ Union has also successfully achieved the highest score of ‘Excellent’ under the NUS Green Impact scheme, showing the SU team’s commitment to sustainability.
Going green with Paperclip
After explaining how Paperclip second-hand marketplaces can help not only with students money but also with sustainability and tackling waste, the team at Keele SU gave us the green light to create a test marketplace.
After a few late nights, our Development Team had a bespoke site ready for testing in time for a September 2018 launch.
The Paperclip Marketing Team then devised a plan to onboard students throughout the university's Fresher's Week using digital, print and Student Brand Ambassadors to get the word out.
We launched the marketplace at the Fresher's Fair and by the end of the day, over 600 eager students had signed-up to the new platform.
Our Brand Ambassadors Rhianne and Sophie at the marketplace launch
Paperclip CMO Laurence added "We love working with Keele SU! Their commitment to sustainability is inspiring. It's great that the university marketplace platform will be part of their strategy going forward. With a strong trading community, less students will be buying first-hand and fewer item will end up in landfill. Everyone is a winner."
Our new Keele Student Brand Ambassador Wikitoria said "Everybody we speak to is really enthusiastic. We take sustainability seriously and of course, students are always looking to save money wherever they can. I am really looking forward to helping grow the marketplace's user base with our promo campaign and let students know about the cool offers you can access just by signing up."
More to come...
The Development Team will be adding exciting new features to the marketplace over the coming months and users will be able to access exclusive student discounts and more...
Does your university need a Paperclip marketplace? Get in touch here.