Case Study

Varsity is part of the Barracuda Group, which operates over 200 pubs and bars across the UK. With an annual turnover of more than £100 million, Barracuda is one of the top ten managed pub operators in the country. Based in 21 university towns across the UK, Varsity Bars are best known for their student parties, providing an award-winning service to thousands of students a year.

Varsity Bars wanted a highly targeted way to engage with its audience, which would hit the student demographic of 18 – 35 year olds, reflect the brand’s youthful, dynamic and lively qualities and continue to provide relevant and current information about deals, offers and activities. Red Ant suggested and developed a bold move which was highly successful – migrating all of Varsity’s web content onto Facebook.

Brief

Varsity wanted to:

• hit the student and young professional demographic of 18 –35 year olds
• reflect the brand’s youthful, dynamic and lively qualities
• continue to provide relevant and current information about deals, offers and activities, including, where appropriate, those from other Barracuda brands

Strategy

• Establish where the target audience ‘lives’ from a social perspective
• Develop a bold, market-leading plan to migrate all of Varsity’s online activity onto a social hub
• Phase out the existing website, and redirect visitors to the new Varsity Hub

Execution

• Develop the Varsity Hub on Facebook, where 96% of students communicate and find information daily
• Use the Hub to provide news, views and updates on the VCard (Varsity discount card), bookings, events, offers and student tour videos, as well as a bar searcher function and information about the link between Varsity and its mother brand, Party at the Pub.
• Repurpose existing landing page to redirect users to Facebook and allow them to sign up for the Party at the Pub newsletter

Results

• Within a month of launch, there were 1,670 new fans to the Facebook page (17% increase)
• Average daily users on the Facebook page increased 279% with the addition of the new content
• Conversion to booking 2,074% higher for traffic reaching sister brand Party At The Pub’s booking page from the Varsity hub, vs. direct from its own website, proving that the content is highly engaging and telling customers exactly what they need to know.