Tuesday, 21 March 2006
The National Union of Students (NUS) is trialing sales of a new type of student card online.
The NUS Extra Card, which costs £10, is available for purchase from specially created online terminals at 14 selected student unions in the North West, until August 2006. The sites include Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Bolton, Rochdale, Preston and Lancaster.
The NUS Extra card entitles students to a range of exclusive discounts and offers from a number of high street retailers including HMV, Argos, USC, Top Shop, Pizza Hut and Specsavers, whilst also doubling up as a student membership card. If the trial is successful, it is envisaged that the NUS Extra Card will be rolled out across all of the UK’s 650 student union sites over the next couple of years, and will eventually replace the traditional NUS membership card, which is currently free of charge.
Manchester-based digital marketing agency, Code Computer Love, has created the online system to support the trial of the card, together with a new website (www.nusextra.co.uk) that will be regularly updated to carry news of all the associated discounts, special offers and competitions. Code has also produced a range of online marketing collateral, including banners, email templates and screensavers, to help Unions to ‘sell’ the NUS Extra Card to students.
Code Computer Love project manager, Jamie Nicholson, comments, “The system has been specifically created with speed and ease of use front of mind. Students visit the terminals at any of the trial sites where they can register online, have their photo taken via webcam and pay by debit or credit card. The whole process takes around five minutes and the card is then delivered to the appropriate Student Union within 10 days. There is also the capability for students to track the status of their card during the processing period, through use of the ‘Your Account’ facility on the NUS Extra website.”
Nicola Copeman, marketing projects manager at NUS Services Ltd, the commercial and operational arm of the NUS, adds, “The NUS Extra Card provides a number of clear benefits for students whilst also placing the individual Student Unions, who receive £4 commission from each card sold, firmly in control. The online trial has been running since Freshers’ Week and, to date, take-up of the card is in line with the targets set and feedback from the Student Unions at the trial sites has been excellent. We will be conducting a full analysis of its success at the end of the academic year with a view to rolling the new card out nationwide in 2007.”
Award-winning Code Computer Love, formed in 1999, has an impressive client list that, in addition to NUS Services Ltd, includes Centura Foods, Kimberly Clark, HMV, Hfs Loans, Bupa, Umbro and Blue Arrow.
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