[JUDGING] Cork University Business School UCC
Section: Best Social Media Campaign for an Event
Organisation Name: Cork University Business School UCC
Events Strategy Questions
Describe Your Ecommerce Business
Cork University Business School’s annual conferrings and graduations are among the most significant and celebratory events in the School calendar.
Taking place over the course of a week at University College Cork, the conferrings bring together graduating students from across CUBS undergraduate and postgraduate programmes as they mark the completion of their studies and a major milestone in their academic journey.
Across the week, students attend their formal conferring ceremonies before celebrating their achievements with classmates, family, friends and loved ones across the UCC campus. The occasion creates a unique atmosphere, combining the formality and tradition of graduation with the excitement, pride and emotion of students and their families.
For Cork University Business School, the conferrings provide an important opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our students, recognise the people who supported them throughout their studies, and capture a memorable moment as graduates transition from student life into the next stage of their careers and their relationship with CUBS as alumni.
Personpeople Who Runs This Strategy
The social media strategy for Cork University Business School’s conferrings is led and delivered entirely by the School’s Marketing & Communications Manager, operating as a team of one.
The Marketing & Communications Manager is responsible for the full end-to-end strategy across CUBS’ social media channels, from initial concept and idea development through to filming, content creation, editing, copywriting, scheduling and publishing.
For the conferrings campaign, this included identifying content opportunities across the week, developing formats designed specifically for social media, filming students and their families on campus, editing content for different platforms, and managing the timing and distribution of posts throughout the event.
This single-person approach allows the strategy to be highly agile and responsive, with content conceived, captured, edited and published quickly enough to reflect the atmosphere and emotion of the conferrings as they happen.
Do You Use Alt Text In Your Images And Caption Your Videos
yes, every piece of content put out across
Outline Your Social Media Strategy For This
The strategy was to transform graduation from a traditional ceremony into a digital storytelling campaign that celebrated graduates, engaged the wider Cork University Business School community and showcased the student experience to prospective students.
The campaign had three objectives: celebrate graduates and their families; grow awareness of CUBS across social media; and support student recruitment through authentic content focused on student experience, graduate outcomes and employability.
Across 10 days of October conferrings, almost 30 pieces of content were published across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. A content plan identified key audiences, themes, filming opportunities and publishing schedules for each ceremony day, with a strong focus on short-form video.
Three core themes drove the campaign: emotional “proud parent” interviews; graduate career interviews highlighting where students were now working; and a “Faculty Fit Check”, where academics revealed the universities behind their graduation gowns, humanising faculty and showcasing academic expertise.
TikTok was the primary short-form platform, supported by Instagram and Facebook Reels, Stories and feed posts. Content was filmed, edited and published in real time on mobile, allowing the campaign to respond to the energy of the week and extend graduation beyond the ceremony itself.
What Are You Doing To Capture Attention In Social To Get Sales
Our approach to capturing attention on social media is built around authenticity. Rather than relying on highly scripted or heavily produced content, we put students, graduates and their families at the centre of the story and allow them to speak in their own words.
Content is designed to feel native to the platforms on which it appears: short, immediate, personality-led and recognisably real. We use strong opening moments, relatable questions, emotion and humour to stop the scroll, while keeping editing light so the content retains the spontaneity of the original interaction.
The graduation campaign reflected this approach throughout. “Proud Parent” interviews captured genuine emotional reactions from families; graduate interviews showed real career outcomes in graduates’ own words; and the “Faculty Fit Check” used a playful social format to introduce academics and their expertise in a more accessible way.
Rather than simply telling prospective students what studying at CUBS is like, our social strategy allows them to see the people, experiences and outcomes for themselves. This builds familiarity and trust with the School, generates interest in our programmes and creates highly shareable content that reaches beyond our existing audience.
What Are Your Metrics For This Campaign Real Metrics Please
The campaign delivered exceptional reach and engagement, demonstrating how authentic, student-led storytelling can extend the impact of a traditional university event far beyond the campus.
Across the 10-day graduation period, almost 30 pieces of content were created and published, generating approximately 659,000 views on TikTok and 464,000 views on Instagram – more than 1.1 million views combined.
A standout success was the Proud Parents , which captured parents speaking spontaneously about their graduating sons and daughters. The video achieved 158,400 views, 8,919 likes, 726 shares, 281 saves and 48 comments on TikTok, demonstrating particularly strong audience engagement with authentic, emotionally resonant content.
Importantly, success was not limited to a single viral post. Content featuring graduates, families and the wider graduation experience consistently performed strongly, turning the ceremonies into a sustained social media moment for Cork University Business School.
The campaign successfully celebrated graduates while simultaneously showcasing the CUBS student experience to prospective students and the wider community. It demonstrated that simple, unscripted storytelling could generate significant organic reach, strengthen audience connection and turn an annual institutional event into one of CUBS’ strongest-performing social media campaign
Website Address
https://www.ucc.ie/en/business-school/
Facebook Link
https://www.facebook.com/uccCUBS/
Instagram Link
https://www.instagram.com/cubsucc/
Tiktok Link
https://www.tiktok.com/@cubsucc
Is There Anything Else You Want To Add Be Brief
we really want to win!
