Creating Snapchat geofilters for freshers fortnight
Our Work
imogen.thompson
Freshers fortnight is an exciting time for new students. It’s a time to pack their bags, shove everything in the boot of Dad’s car, and set off for the land of freedom and fun (and work, of course). Some of the friendships made in fresher’s fortnight last a lifetime, could even help students in their future careers.
HSBC believes that the people you meet at uni can shape your life, so it was crucial for the brand to drive that message to students during freshers fortnight. So we created a Snapchat campaign to give HSBC a fresher’s campaign with a difference.
Snapchat, the go-to channel for media consumption by Generation Z, was the obvious platform choice for the campaign. We created 14 different Snapchat geofilters that were activated at 170 different Universities across the UK from 26th September through to the 9th October. Each filter was designed like a magazine cover, placing the student’s face at the centre with the slogan ‘Face to Watch 2026.’
We also created three 10 second Snap Ads which appeared on Snapchat stories during fresher’s week.
The snap ads achieved a total of 2.1 million engagements. The geofilters reached over 580k people over the course of the campaign, and overall there was incredibly strong brand engagement with over 286,000 unique swipers.
HSBC was the first bank in the UK to run Snap Ads and geofilters during the freshers period, and the filters acted as a conversation-starter for newbie students. Importantly, the geofilters and Snap Ads were a fun way to interact with students and connect them with HSBC in a subtle but engaging way, and with content that truly appealed to them.
And, nicer still, we had a happy client – Jag Sharma, Social Media Marketing Manager at HSBC UK:
What I like about We Are Social is that they genuinely care. We Are Social are very much my trusted advisor for creative and social media content best practice. When it comes to high quality creative content, I feel in a very safe pair of hands with We Are Social by my side.
