Inter-University Social Media Campaign

For the second time now, the Masterclass Film & TV of our master degree programme Digital Media Production under the supervision of Lars Oertel took part in the Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), a type of mobility funded by ERASMUS+. Together with students from the University of Applied Sciences Mittweida (Germany), the group from St. Pölten visited the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) this year to discuss the topic “Social Media Content Development – Instagram vs. TikTok”.

In addition to enabling student mobility, Blended Intensive Programmes also promote the implementation of innovative teaching and learning methods. Building on online seminars completed prior to the mobility part, the students of all three higher education institutions worked on their social media concepts in small groups. The actual project work was complemented by in-depth presentations and field trips.

Social Media Campaign on Instagram and TikTok

Based on the introductory lectures on social media content development, content marketing, and social media algorithms, there was a talk session with a lifestyle social media influencer from Cluj-Napoca. Thus well-trained, the students got down to project implementation. They were given advertising letters to turn into social media campaigns on Instagram and TikTok, always considering defined parameters such as target group and age.

In mixed small groups, the students came up with eleven different advertising campaigns to promote Cluj-Napoca to an international target group either as a city of innovation and the IT sector, as a culinary centre, or as a cultural hub. The task was to create accounts on Instagram and TikTok, share posts, and include hashtags. At the end of the week, the projects were presented to the experts of the German-taught study programme for Communication, Advertising, and PR.

“One special characteristic of this exchange is that students of the study programme Media Management from Mittweida, the degree programme Communication, Advertising, and PR from Cluj-Napoca, and the programme Digital Media Production from St. Pölten implemented projects together”, explains Lars Oertel.

Group photo of all participants | Copyright: Employee Babes-Bolyai University

Further Highlights

There were further items on the agenda in addition to project work. The students visited the Cluj Innovation Park, a centre for creative industries where great emphasis is on “The Future of Work”. Co-working spaces and various labs for CGI & VFX, Machine Learning & Automation, and Design Development gave the students an outlook on what working may look like in the future.

Of course, the cultural aspects were not neglected, either. By bus, the students went to Sibiu (or Hermannstadt), the European Capital of Culture in 2007, and learnt a lot about the historic landscape of Transylvania, the city’s history, and the arrival of the first German settlers in 1147. The latter is part of the reason why the Romanian students speak perfect German even today.

“The BIP of our masterclass Film & TV in Cluj-Napoca was a great experience! We were made to feel at home from the beginning, which allowed us to get to know the Romanian culture and the country up close. The exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration with the other students from Germany and Romania were particularly interesting. Thanks to our joint project, we made many new acquaintances and grew closer within our masterclass as well”, says Verena Schinnerl, one of the BIP participants from St. Pölten.