Footballplayers from the German Nationalelf promote IU's distance learning programme

• IU marketing campaign "IU Study Goals: Together for Success" was launched on 7 July.
• Part of the campaign are the DFB women Lea Schüller, Klara Bühl, Sydney Lohmann and Nicole Anyomi, who study at IU alongside their professional sports careers. 
• For maximum awareness, cross-media content will be played out during the Women's World Cup. 
   

Erfurt, Germany, 13 July 2023. IU International University (IU), the largest university in Germany, has four women from the German national football team competing now, one week before the start of the World Cup - for a joint marketing campaign. Under the title "IU Study Goals: Together for Success", the aim is to raise brand awareness for the IU. The campaign is aimed in particular at people who have had no previous contact with study, nor have they thought about it. Professional footballers Lea Schüller (FC Bayern München), Klara Bühl (FC Bayern München), Sydney Lohmann (FC Bayern München) and Nicole Anyomi (Eintracht Frankfurt), who are themselves studying at IU by distance learning, will act as IU ambassadors. In various media formats, they report on their everyday life as students and athletes and whet the appetite for the flexible learning opportunities offered by distance learning.

Increase brand awareness with short video clips and ads

The multi-stage marketing campaign starts with short video ads in which the players introduce themselves and their degree programme. Users are then addressed with further ads in which the players' motives for studying at the IU are told. The third step is a performance campaign via meta-platforms such as Facebook, Instagram & Co. A landing page picks up on the personal stories of the professional female footballers on the topic of combining career and studies and focuses on distance learning in a true-to-life way. The campaign page gives interested parties the opportunity to find out more about IU and its study programmes and to download information material. 

"We want to use the time shortly before and during the World Cup to increase brand awareness for IU and to awaken the desire to study in the Upper Funnel. For this purpose, we were able to win over four great female football players who found their way to IU out of their own motivation and want to recommend their distance learning programme to friends, acquaintances and strangers," says Alexander Krösser, Chief Marketing Officer at IU International University. "The young women are excellent testimonials who show how flexibly studies can be integrated into everyday working life and how important lifelong learning is in order to grow and fulfil oneself. This is exactly what we at IU want to encourage as many people as possible to do," says Krösser. 

Raffle of signed IU hoodies and footballs

Other measures during the campaign period include a competition via social media in which IU hoodies and footballs signed by the footballers are raffled off. Blog posts about the players will be published via Inside@IU, an online magazine for distance learning students. Interviews with the DFB women will be played out via YouTube. Additional reach will be generated with Instagram reels and collab posts. For user retention and maintenance, customer relationship management measures are planned in the form of mailings with content aimed at encouraging people to study at IU.

The marketing campaign was independently developed in-house by IU International University. It started on 7 July and will end after the FIFA Women's World Cup on 20 August 2023. Further information on the campaign can be found at iu-fernstudium.de/frauenfussballwm-2023.

For more information, background discussions or interviews with our experts, please contact our press team at: presse@iu.org.