Welcome to Swansea
The Challenge – Improving International Recruitment
Swansea International needed video content that would resonate with prospective international students, showing the authentic student experience and supporting international recruitment efforts.
They wanted to show the welcoming community vibe, with a strong focus on employability and that it is safe. In addition, show off the picturesque coastal setting and campus beach life. All in a way that feels authentic and trustworthy.
Welcome To Swansea Main Edit (16×9)
Welcome To Swansea Campaign
We’re in awe of international students. How inspiring they are travelling to study here. Often without visiting the university or the UK beforehand.
They have the most interesting study journeys. With a compelling reason, drive or dream behind their subject choice.
That’s why it’s so important to get the suite of content and especially video right. We need prospective international students to be able to visualise themselves on campus and feel confident in their study decision.
Swansea University commissioned Carnival Content to create a suite of engaging films showcasing their international student experience.
Narottam’s Story (16×9)
The Strategy – Tell Real Student Stories
We encourage our clients to not only shoot the main campaign video, but to showcase each individual student story as well. This is particularly important for international marketing, so that the regions are represented on a deeper level, with a relatable student story.
We created a suite of real student stories talking about their lived experience of applying, travelling, studying and living in Swansea. Relatable and inspiring stories for Swansea’s global audience.
We pitched the idea of student content creator style introductions to each of the videos. Leaning into authentic storytelling with self filmed iPhone clips. Then moving onto more cinematic storyboarded shots to showcase the best parts of campus and surrounding area cut with their interview.
Everything was shot at 4k in landscape and all shots were planned to work well in horizontal and vertical cuts for social media and ad edits. All clips are SLOG and then colour graded for a consistent look and feel across the suite of videos.
Basma’s Story (16×9)
The project included:
- A 3-minute flagship promotional video featuring five international students, combining interviews with authentic b-roll on campus and around Swansea.
- A set of India specific campaign videos, ads and social edits
- Four individual student case studies offering deeper insight into their student stories and experiences.
- Social media and ad edits of the main video tailored for Instagram, Shorts and TikTok
Swansea to Bangalore
The below 10 second ad is one of many outputs from this project. It played on giant screens in Bangalore Mall, bringing the Swansea experience to life for prospective students in India.
The ad was design to the screens specifications. There were a few variations to build interest, with different call to actions.
Bangalore Mall Advert (9×16)
The Approach
Working with the International Marketing Team, they identified confident students with interesting stories to tell.
First, the India specific videos were shot over 1 & 1/2 days to cover both campuses, with two interviews. These were edited first, as proof of concept and due to the priority of student recruitment.
Then the other 4 x case study videos were shot over two days, half a day per featured student (including the interview and b-roll).
We had beautiful weather for all bar one of the days shoots, where in typical Welsh style it rained throughout the day. We carried on with the b-roll with some umbrellas, adding the reality of the project (see Weiyi’s video)!
The benefit of having multiple interviewees is that they can all feature in each other’s videos, reducing the need for lots of student extras. Although, the more the merrier!
Emmanuela’s Story (16×9)
Execution
Carnival Content worked closely with Swansea’s International Marketing Team to create a flexible video series that could be used across global campaigns.
By focusing on real students and authentic moments, the content helped reduce uncertainty and build trust with prospective students overseas.
Gaining over 87,000 organic YouTube views on Swansea’s channel.
They helped:
- Communicate the student experience beyond academics
- Build trust and emotional connection with prospective students
- Showcase Swansea as a welcoming and vibrant place to study
- Provide the international team with high-quality video assets they could deploy across campaigns, events and digital platforms
Weiyi’s Story (16×9)
Explore more of our university video production work →
See how we approach open day campaigns for universities →
Planning an international student recruitment campaign?
Talk to us about your next video project
Or email us: hello@carnivalcontent.com
“Carnival Content have been instrumental in delivering our international student videos, bringing vast experience and technical expertise to the table. The team’s flexibility and professionalism ensured a smooth process from start to finish, with skills in camerawork, editing, and final production delivering a high-quality end product. The communication is consistently excellent and the ability to advise throughout the project made working with the team a real pleasure.