Deeside College wins UK Marketing Award for PR

Deeside College has won the prestigious UK Further Education Colleges' Marketing Network Award for Public Relations 2007.

The 'Celebrate Cymraeg (Welsh Language) Campaign' run by Deeside College's marketing team was developed to promote the college's commitment to promoting the Welsh language and the Welsh 'dimension'. An ideal opportunity to raise the college's Welsh profile was identified through the Welsh National Eisteddfod event which took place in August 2007, and was held in Mold, Flintshire, close to the college's main campus.

Deeside College's marketing team organised and implemented a highly effective promotional campaign. The campaign included offering a free Welsh for Beginners CDROM to readers across Flintshire and bordering areas, which was supported by Welsh themed events attended by staff and students, the production and distribution of a phrasebook for Eisteddfod exhibitors, local businesses and the local community, and the development of additional Welsh courses.

Very positive feedback was received in response to the CDROMs, phrase books and the college's attendance at the Eisteddfod event and the college responded to increased demand for Welsh classes by adding an additional five courses on to its original provision.

David Jones, Principal of Deeside College, said, "My congratulations go to the college's marketing team, and Non Lewis-Edwards, our Welsh Language Co-ordinator, in particular. We're also very grateful to the team at the Chronicle who supported this campaign and helped bring free CDROMs to the local community. The team were very effective in raising awareness of Deeside College's commitment to the Welsh Language and effectively raised demand for beginners Welsh courses. This year has been extremely successful for Deeside College with top inspection ratings, so this award is the icing on the cake."

The CDROM was based on 10 hours' maximum study to provide an easy taster for beginners, including simple words and phrases in Welsh.

Welsh themed events included St Dwynwyn's Day (Welsh Valentine's Day), St David's Day and a Welsh taster day.

Deeside College created 1,000 phrasebooks to assist local businesses in dealing with visitors speaking Welsh, French, German, Spanish and Italian, in preparation for the Eisteddfod in Mold. The phrasebooks were distributed to local businesses and community organisations across Flintshire.

A total of 492 CDROMs were requested by Chronicle readers and of these, 88 people confirmed they wanted to receive a follow on course on CDROM.
There was a 20% response rate to the college's evaluation questionnaire, with 41 respondents saying that the CDROM had encouraged them to attend the Eisteddfod event.

To meet increased demand for Welsh language learning, Deeside College subsequently offered five additional courses.

www.deeside.ac.uk