Launching STUK (The British Council)'s TikTok

Study UK (STUK), led by the British Council in partnership with the UK government’s GREAT Britain campaign, is all about showcasing the UK as a top-tier destination for international students. We're helping them do it with a bold digital and social strategy.

We always try to meet the STUK audience on their own digital turf, engaging them with authentic content, practical tips and real student stories. And where's the best place for that? Gen Z’s favourite platform, TikTok. 

To kick things off, we conducted bespoke audience research to find the best approach, using audience analytics and tailored surveys. The results highlights were...

1. Over 55% of those surveyed use TikTok daily.
2. Across all three countries we surveyed (USA, France, Germany), comedic content ranked as the number one choice for content to engage with.
3. Tips and hacks, followed by interesting facts, food, drink and travel, topped the list of content people love interacting with.
4. When it comes to education and studying abroad, students were most excited about first-hand stories, study tips and all the insider info about their destination.

We developed a clear content approach: highlight the UK as the ideal choice for international students through short, joyful and inspiring TikTok videos.

The three key brand messages became our three content pillars:

From our research, we knew success hinged on being relatable, insightful and authentic. To achieve this, we focused on student voices and real-life stories, creating a platform where international and UK students could share content they found relevant.

Our approach was twofold:

1. Partner with UK universities, collaborating with student ambassadors, societies and faculty members to share cultural stories and student tips.
2. Work with TikTok creators who have strong influence in their native countries or UK student communities, building long-term partnerships to boost reach and engagement.

In the first two weeks after launch, we surpassed our follower goal two-fold, with just over 60K followers and an average engagement rate of 8.4%. 

Our launch video reached 962K users, receiving over 1M video views. We have also built solid foundations for an ever-growing community of creators. To date, we are working with 21 university ambassadors and content creators and are in conversation with another eight students for future content and campaign planning. Some of the videos we have created with ambassadors have achieved over 2M views. 

We can confidently say we're on the right track with our student-led narrative and is a testament to our content being helpful, informative and inspiring.