Hewitt Matthews at Cosham takes home national award after success of student support campaign during pandemic

Hewitt Matthews, based at Lakeside, North Harbour, won the Campaign of the Year in the Issues and Crisis Category for #WeAreTogether at the PR Week UK Global Awards 2022.

The aim of the campaign was to reassure international students, who may have been isolated due to lockdown, that they weren't alone and signpost them to support services. It also highlighted to prospective students living abroad that UK universities had made sufficient provision around hygiene and health and safety.

The company managed #WeAreTogether on behalf of UK universities, across Instagram, Facebook and university websites.Universities invited international students to upload their own videos to Instagram with the hashtag #WeAreTogether and explain their experiences of studying on campus. Vloggers were able to outline how their individual universities had responded to the pandemic with health and safety, online learning and mental health support being highlighted. In the first three months of the campaign, seven million people had viewed it.

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Two-thirds of prospective international students surveyed said they felt more confident to continue with their plans to study in the UK after engaging with it.

Carl Hewitt, co-founder and CEO, said: ‘We're so proud to have won the PR Week award for this important campaign. It's an honour to have been shortlisted amongst such strong competition.’

Reece Matthews, co-founder and COO, added: ‘It's always great to see a campaign gaining momentum with a target audience. The engagement figures for #WeAreTogether were particularly welcome as we knew the content would be a comfort to those who were isolated.’