The messy truth about going to uni wins students and Heist Award
Holly, the host of Cardiff Met’s podcast: Help I’m Going to Uni
Forget the glossy brochures and the heroic, sweeping campus shots. Prospective university students are craving something real. They want to know the messy, human truth about going to uni.
That was the core insight behind "Help, I'm Going to University," a podcast created not just as another piece of content, but as an antidote to student anxiety and a powerful marketing tool to encourage peer-to-peer chat.
The background
“We need a podcast”, the words that every marketer dreads hearing when a ‘new’ platform is insisted upon.
“Do we?” asked Brand and Content Manager, Jack Rivers. The target audience was students, but as Jack says, “The reality is that what a university wants to talk about vs what students want to talk about is very different.” So what kind of content would be useful for students and how would it differ from what’s already out there?
The student recruitment team kept hearing the same feedback: students weren't anxious about the curriculum; they were worried about being homesick, lonely, starting the wrong course, or even managing a long-distance relationship. These "soft" anxieties - the real, life stuff that affects a student's mental wellbeing - are topics traditional university marketing often avoids. You’ll never see a recruitment video titled, "How will you cope without your partner?" But that's precisely what some students want to know.
The goal was to find a relevant approach to address these topics genuinely, honestly, and in a completely unfiltered way - to create content that felt user generated (UGC) but with the reliability and steer of a professional production.
From Podcast to Social
Asking someone to commit to 20 minutes of listening is a big ask. But Jack divulged that it actually began with an ulterior motive: “The main objective wasn't to generate long-form listeners - that was a bonus. The true goal was to build a huge, evergreen library of rich, honest content that could be easily packaged into 60 second social clips.”
The podcast was the high value production asset, and the social clips were the highly consumable, widely distributed marketing output. This strategy extended the reach, turning one core piece of content into a colourful set of assets for multiple platforms, from YouTube to Instagram to TikTok. A podcast that wouldn’t have to be consumed in one sitting.
Parents beware
To achieve that authentic feel, the team focused on three angles:
The Guests: They intentionally moved beyond hand-picked student ambassadors to recruit from the entire student body. This ensured a true representation of the diversity of experiences - including students who had dropped out and restarted. Honest and inclusive, the ingredients that differentiate it from other uni podcasts.
The Unfiltered Approach: The sessions are purposefully kept raw. Notably, they exclude parents from attending live sessions to ensure the conversation remains among students. This allows for honest discussions about swearing, social life, and all the messy bits of the university experience that might not usually be covered.
The Host: They secured a relatable host, Holly, who was already vlogging about her university journey. They had to have someone with personality but who could simultaneously put interviewees at ease.
When I watched or listened to Holly in flow, it’s impossible not to warm to her; she’s effortlessly witty, kind and has bags of enthusiasm for every topic covered. Her genuine surprise and unfiltered response to the answers of her questions make you feel like you’re experiencing the podcast in a shared moment with her.
A use of AI that doesn’t replace creativity
One of its keys to success is in making this rich library of content usable across the entire recruitment team and they’ve leveraged a brilliant innovation: a custom GPT search engine. By feeding the AI all the episode transcripts, the team created an "expert" on the podcast.
Now, if a team member is giving a talk on student budgeting (for example), they can ask the custom GPT to recommend relevant episodes and provide the exact timestamp. This ensures maximum use of the evergreen content and proves that Generative AI can be used to support existing creativity, not just to generate more for its own sake.
A very modest Jack (aka, AI custom model creator) tells me about the time saved and the increase in exposure. It’s advances like these that will make all the difference when trying to connect with students, which is warmly reflected in the comments on YouTube:
“Omg, u guys can’t imagine how useful it was”.
“I’m moving 5 hours to go this September but it’s nice to know others are probably just as nervous as I am”.
Letting go for success
‘Help! I’m going to Uni’ is working because it addresses the audience’s real fears. Simply telling the unvarnished truth seems to work but is letting go of control, as a marketer a simple task?
“There’s a lot of prep that goes into it, getting interviewees and post-production of the podcast. Even before the recording starts we spend 15 mins together to set the tone of what the room is meant to feel like,” says Jack, which is an important part of putting guests at ease.
“What I would say, is that not having too much control over the content is also easier and also part of the appeal for students.”
It’s special…
I loved hearing about the making of this content, the way everyone involved is adapting it to host live discussions at recruitment events (in a space without parents!!!) and even featuring Holly and guests on the UG prospectus.
When students say they’ve seen themselves in the guests featured and felt less alone and your host is being asked for a selfie in Big Tescos, you know you’ve created something very very special.
Here’s what the judges said:
SILVER AWARD WINNER
Cardiff Metropolitan University Help! I'm Going to Uni
Judges Comments: "This was a great idea, so innovative. They used fun and fresh thinking with a bold tone and Gen Z feel. The Use of AI has driven effectiveness and put the user needs at the heart of the content - well done!"
