Social media experts at the OU chalked up another win at the UK Content Awards 2018 in London.
The Social Media Engagement Team, part of the Communications Unit, won its third national award of the academic year for the #BrainteaserMonth campaign, which ran throughout January 2018 and involved challenges, puzzles, and dilemmas set exclusively by OU academics.
Record engagement figures
Building on the 6.5 million reach of #BrainteaserMonth 2017, the 2018 campaign smashed the initial 10 million target and reached an impressive 21 million people* and generated 200,000 engagements across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The campaign triumphed against stiff opposition from major charities and national PR agencies in the ‘Not for Profit/Charity Content Campaign of the Year’ category.
The award commendation said: “The judges thought is campaign provided great use of in-house assets to create engaging content. They were impressed by the traditional approach of this campaign with its use of social competition to drive engagement.”
Academic excellence
After the ceremony, Director of Communications at The Open University, Lucian Hudson, congratulated the team:
“This well-deserved award is recognition, not just of the creativity and hard work of the social media team, but also of the academic excellence of the University and the willingness of its staff to help tell that story in new and exciting ways.”
*Figures from SocialSignIn
In October the Social Media Engagement Team’s #Iwas campaign, celebrating the OU’s diverse student and alumni community, was winner of the Best Audience Engagement Campaign category in the UK Social Media Communications Awards.
The campaign won a second UK-wide award in November last year, achieving first place in the Best User-Generated Content category of the Social Buzz Awards, beating McDonalds, Ikea, Adidas and the Bank of England to the top spot.
