Success of ‘University Face Off’ Inspires Facebook Contest Application

Source: For further information please contact Owen Burek at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Twitter: @UniFaceOff

University Face Off is a new competition using the Facebook platform to find the ‘most supported’ university voted for by UK students, created by two recent graduates and Innospace tenants.

Since its conception in December 2010, the competition’s Facebook page has generated well over 2.5 million hits. After a dramatic finale, the first round of University Face Off has come to an end.

It was the community-driven Aberystwyth University who took home the trophy, seeing off much larger and coveted institutions. The competition empowered students to publically support their universities by earning points through various viral activities across Facebook, Twitter and putting up posters on campus.

Support was shown for some 130 British universities. Many universities themselves got on board, welcoming the support and realising the wider benefits of the fun competition.

Several students from the 11,000 strong player base on Facebook took away some fantastic prizes for supporting their universities. The prize pool included an Amazon Kindle, £200 worth of proof-reading and ‘Student Invasion’ trips to both Ibiza and Amsterdam.

For the ‘Face Off’ team, the nationwide university competition compliments their other student projects, notably SaveTheStudent.org and StudentMap.co.uk. Yet the experience gained through developing and managing the Facebook competition has been invaluable.

The success of University Face Off has inspired the two graduates to continue developing the Facebook contest application, with the view to licensing. Meanwhile, they are already planning the next round of the competition for later this year. It is set to be even bigger with the prospect of free on-campus events.

A blog post by Afia Khatun