With stresses, worries, and nerves consuming third year university students across the nation, as dissertation hand-in’s began to take over their lives. We constructed a campaign that saw our client, Smoke Barbecue host the perfect remedy to chill out third year students at Leeds Beckett university. The barbecue chain invited 50 students to a dissertation detox, cramming session, generously providing them with a free meal and drink. Which gave the perfect opportunity for students at Leeds Beckett University to discover the real, authentic, wood fired flavour of Smoke BBQ.

The competition instructions were to follow @SmokeLeeds and post a photograph of their most stressed out picture with #GetDirty on the tweet. Then the Best 50 photos won a place on the guest list. Winners would find out that they’d won a place by a Direct Message from Smoke Barbecue from their Twitter account. Along with a Twitter competition, there was a one on the night for the best student photo on the night, with the winner gaining a £250 cash prize. The night aimed to encourage students to the restaurant, as they’ve recently released their new promotion; 20% off their total bill for students with a valid ID card.

The night captured the opportunity to have a meatilicious escape from dawning deadlines. As the restaurant is situated round the corner from the Leeds Beckett city Leslie Silver library, a place the students have been hibernating for weeks on end. Leeds Beckett seemed the perfect University partners for the job.

Developing a partnership with Leeds Beckett Student Union was vital in ensuring that the event was a success. As they have nearly seven thousand likes on Facebook, being shared on the account would address the student target audience directly. The Student Union shared the promotion on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, YouTube channel ‘BeTV’ and their radio ‘BeRadio’. This was useful as it provided a direct gateway to the target audience being students. Another student influence we had was to encourage TV journalism students to film interviews and footage of the night. The video created was featured on Smoke Barbecue’s Facebook page. By having student input throughout the event, it emphasised the meaning on the night being to promote the new discount.

The night brought a 20% increase in followers for the account, and successfully spread the restaurant’s name and new 20% discount around the University creating great publicity for Smoke Barbecue.