ORCA.nrw:
Starting your studies with influencer power.
Students can be reached on campus. And prospective students still in school? Sure, at school. But schools are a very challenging and highly fragmented advertising environment. That’s why ORCA.nrw, the state portal for study and teaching, took a different (advertising) route to specifically support young people in NRW as they start their studies and to make it easier for them to access free learning materials and study aptitude tests: to TikTok. This platform is especially popular with school students and therefore a good channel for reaching the young target group.
Help getting started with your studies via TikTok!
Key Facts
- Campaign start: Winter semester 2024/25
- Online presence, with a focus on students in North Rhine-Westphalia
- Target group: prospective students, especially upper secondary school students and those preparing for the Abitur
- Channel: TikTok
- Measure: Influencer campaign with 20 creators from the education sector
Idea
- Direct address of the target group in their digital living environment
- Circumventing the hard-to-reach school environment through social media
- Authentic communication of study-entry topics by influencers
- Focus on low-threshold access to learning materials and aptitude tests
Goals
- Support for students starting university studies in NRW
- Increasing awareness and use of ORCA.nrw
- Connecting people with free educational opportunities on an equal footing
- Building trust through credible, personal content
Strategy
- Platform selection: TikTok as the target audience’s preferred channel
- Influencer selection: 20 creators, including students from various fields of study
- Content formats: Everyday insights, tips for choosing a degree program, recommendations for learning materials
- Success story: Influencer @hosnamadina with over 31,000 views and 2,500 saves
Take Aways
- TikTok is ideal for educational marketing aimed at young target audiences
- Influencers create closeness, relevance, and credibility
- ORCA.nrw was able to significantly increase its reach
- Successful outreach to students without wastage in the school environment
»Students are a particularly media-savvy target group that is highly active on social media – especially on TikTok. Therefore, it was only natural for us to place our information offering right there.
In cooperation with educational influencers, we managed to address the young target group authentically and on an equal footing, and to introduce our portal to them in a credible and relatable way.«
Saskia Helbeck-Prepens,
Content Manager at
ORCA.nrw
55%
of the surveyed 14- to 27-year-olds stated that they use TikTok.
Source: Survey of 34,257 respondents aged 14 and over, D21 Digital Index 2024/2025, Initiative D21.
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