TL:DR
By consolidating recruitment activity into a single high-performing virtual experience, UWE Bristol dramatically increased leads while reducing costs by 92%.
The Challenge
Over successive recruitment cycles, undergraduate digital prospectus requests had steadily declined for UWE Bristol, resulting in a 40% year-on-year decrease in leads for the university. It was clear the prospectus was no longer performing and the marketing team needed to find a new way to capture high quality, high intent leads.
Meanwhile, the university’s Vepple virtual experience was seeing year-on-year growth in performance, and sector research (UCAS, TSR, What Uni) was suggesting prospective students favoured authentic, relatable peer-led content over institutional content.
To solve these interconnected challenges, the university made a bold strategic shift: to retire their undergraduate prospectus entirely and position their Vepple virtual experience as the primary discovery platform for a new generation of learners.
What UWE Bristol Did
The university consolidated their digital investment, effort, and creative focus into a single, high-performing solution. By retiring the traditional prospectus, they transformed their virtual tour into an immersive, student-first discovery engine.
To achieve this, the team focused on three strategic updates:
- Introduced lead capture forms within the Vepple experience, turning engagement into high-value leads while maintaining user experience
- Expanded the experience with more student-led subject tours and contextual content aligned with peer-led research behaviours
- Seamlessly integrated the virtual experience into the wider UWE Bristol user and website journey
The transition was implemented over a single recruitment cycle, with a short overlap period and careful monitoring to ensure engagement levels remained stable after introducing gated access.
The Impact
In the first week after gating the virtual experience, Vepple captured as many prospective student leads as the university’s previous digital prospectus generated in a typical month, giving early confidence that the shift was strategically safe.
This performance was sustained across the entire recruitment cycle; compared to the previous digital prospectus model, Vepple generated 969% more prospective student leads during the same recruitment period.
Between March 2025 and January 2026, the new approach delivered:
Results at a glance
- 969% increase in student leads
- 92% reduction in cost per lead
- 65% reduction in marketing team resource demands
- 12.5x improvement in ROI
Engagement growth
- 46% increase in virtual tour users year on year
- 48% increase in virtual tour page views year on year
A quote from UWE Bristol
“We were investing a disproportionate amount of time and resource into maintaining digital publications for diminishing returns. Consolidating around a single platform reduced costs significantly and allowed us to focus on a platform delivering far greater value.” – Charlotte Hopes, Head of Marketing
The bottom line
At a time when many universities are trying to maintain and optimise dozens of different digital channels, UWE Bristol proved that the secret to better student recruitment is simplification.
By replacing their traditional prospectus with a dynamic, accessible, and fully integrated virtual experience, they did not just streamline internal processes. They slashed their cost per lead by 92% compared to the traditional prospectus model, creating a highly efficient recruitment engine that was better aligned with how many prospective students now research universities. The new approach also gave prospective students a more immersive and student-led way to explore university life.
