The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) Students Union (SU) has selected mobile messaging firm Piri to meet its mobile marketing needs during freshers week.
Voted Top Modern University of the North West by The Times for two years running, and boasting one of the largest unions in the country, UCLan SU will use text to promote attendance at events and encourage viral campaigns at the start of the new academic year.
UCLan SU will include a text response number and Shortcode on promotional material distributed to students and displayed in the University and Union. Students who text in will then receive regular updates and alerts. They will also be able to receive discount vouchers, which can be redeemed and passed to fellow students.
This is something new for us and we want to test it during what is a very busy period, says Edward Walker who co-ordinates web and digital marketing at UCLan SU. Piris SMS interface is affordable and has all the functionality we need to set up text campaigns for the new intake of students. Were particularly keen to see how SMS works for our club nights and live events during the first few weeks of term, which are crucial to us as a Students Union. 
