Spotlight On…Clearing with Gerald Heneghan

What do you most enjoy about your role as Senior Digital Marketing Officer for the Faculty of Humanities?

I’d have to say the sheer variety of projects I get the opportunity to work on. One moment, I’ll be consulting on social advertising campaigns and the next conducting search engine result pages (SERPs) audits for Faculty assets. Since it’s a brand new role for the Faculty, there’s a great deal of scope - given the varied and interesting work that sits under the umbrella of humanities. 

Please can you tell us how the Communications and Marketing team is preparing for clearing, and who you’re working with across the Faculty?

Clearing is one of the biggest annual stand-alone campaigns for the University as a whole and since prospective students are likely to regard us as a single entity, it’s necessary to approach the campaign as such. This entails not only working across the Faculty, but also further afield - cooperating with our counterparts in other faculties, schools and departments.

This year’s campaign is ambitious in scope, with a diverse range of tactics that’ll form a multi-pronged plan of attack for attracting and converting a sufficient volume and high calibre of prospective students - from social and affiliate advertising to Google AdWords, email nurturing and beyond. 

What’s the most challenging part of the project for you and your colleagues, and how are you working through it?

The changing landscape of clearing is probably the most challenging aspect of the project, with growing competition from a variety of sources. But by taking advantage of the University’s fantastic weight of brand identity and utilising some savvy activation techniques, we’re confident that we’ll be more than able to hold our own. 

What’s the last book you read, and would you recommend it?

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee. I’d definitely recommend it, but it’s part of a trilogy, so read the first two beforehand!