University of Wolverhampton: WVLife goes digital

DesignDevelopmentSEOStrategy

Crafting a unique online magazine to boost reach and engagement with a wide-ranging alum community.

Get in touch See what we created

Project achievements

Countries penetrated in first year65

Increase in subscriptions4,900%

A graphic showing file folders from a traditional filing cabinet floating over a grey background. The front of the file folder show various prototype pages from the new University of Wolverhampton alum magazine website.

Brief

"The University of Wolverhampton traditionally shared its alum success stories, benefits, and opportunities through a printed magazine. However, with 98% of alums in 130 countries not subscribed, their high-quality magazine wasn't getting the reach or engagement it deserved.

As such, we were tasked with designing and developing a magazine web platform that was visually engaging, interactive, and highly targeted. It also needed to create a sense of community, nostalgia, and belonging, inspiring alums to stay connected."

A smartphone atop a bright pink plaster slab. The smartphone screen displays an article about the video game Max Payne 3.

Approach

"The university team joined us for a brand workshop to understand the full story behind their objectives, audience, and design needs.

It was clear from the start that the university team were willing to take risks and push the boundaries of website design – willing to jump in and collaborate at every step in the workshop and planning stage – which meant we could create designs that excited the team from the off."

An animated GIF showing pages of a website being transmitted down an electric line towards a smartphone. The smartphone screen displays a page from the new University of Wolverhampton alum magazine website.

Solution

"The website was built on WordPress using the Gutenberg editor to provide maximum flexibility for content editing. We also added seamless publishing – crucial for time-sensitive information that can’t wait until the next edition is published.

Our design also included personalising email links, so when an alum clicks through to the website from an email, the articles they see will be tailored. The website was launched to high praise, and the alum team delivers their WVLife magazine to 100% of their database, encouraging contributors and honourary doctorates to share within their niche community."

A graphic showing many screenshots of the new WLV Life magazine website, built by Brew Digital in Birmingham. Each screenshot shows a different page of the website. All the pages are offset at a 30-degree angle to the left.

A blue table with a large tablet device sitting over the edge. The tablet screen displays an article from the online alum magazine of the University of Wolverhampton (WLV Life).

What our clients say

David Wedge

Deputy Head of Alumni Relations at University of Wolverhampton

“The feedback we’ve had so far has been really great,” said David Wedge, Alumni Relations Manager at University of Wolverhampton. “I’ve had people stop me to tell me how good it looks. The look of the website is perfect. I wouldn’t have done anything different. I’m super super pleased.””

And it wasn’t just the digital alumni magazine that David was glowing about…

“Everything to do with the service from Brew was brilliant,” he said.

“It was a really smooth process, people got back to me on the same day, which is unheard of in our world. James was very forthcoming with ideas for how we could get something to work, but with clear justifications. It was clear we were working with people with experience and a genuine sense of getting it right for us.”

“A big thanks to James, Scott and all the team in the background.”

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