Ana Marin - Universidad Europea

In a category as complex and high-stakes as higher education, brand growth is no longer just about filling seats. It is about building trust, authority, and long-term relevance in a market where decision-making is increasingly fragmented, emotional, and influenced by a multitude of touchpoints.

Ana Marín, Marketing Manager at Universidad Europea, sits at the centre of this transformation. Responsible for driving growth across strategic verticals within one of Spain’s largest private university networks, she is navigating a shift that many brands are now facing: from performance-led marketing to brand-led growth.

From Performance to Preference: Redefining Growth KPIs

For years, marketing in education, like many sectors, leaned heavily on performance-driven tactics. Capture demand, optimise conversion, and drive enrolments. But that model is no longer sufficient in today’s environment.

Ana describes a dual KPI framework that reflects this evolution. On one hand, there is the tangible outcome: student growth. On the other, there is brand relevance, the degree to which prospective students feel connected to, and prefer, the university. “These two KPIs go hand in hand,” she says. “You probably can’t achieve one without the other.”

What makes this particularly challenging is that different parts of the organisation sit at different stages of maturity. A newly launched campus may need to prioritise awareness, while more established units focus on deepening relevance and differentiation.

The implication is clear: brand growth is not linear. It requires adapting the marketing focus depending on where the brand, or sub-brand, sits in its lifecycle.

“The ultimate business KPI is clear: how we attract more students year on year. But alongside that, there’s another KPI that matters just as much—how we make people prefer our brand over others.”

The Real Drivers of Choice: Prestige and Recommendation

When it comes to what actually drives growth in higher education, Ana is unequivocal: “The main drivers are prestige and recommendation.” Prestige, however, is not a superficial construct. It is built through a combination of tangible and experiential elements: academic quality, industry connections, faculty expertise, facilities, and ultimately, career outcomes. “It’s about the academic model, how students learn, the link with industry, and how studying here positions you in your professional life,” she explains.

Closely intertwined with this is recommendation. In a category where decisions carry long-term consequences, peer validation and word-of-mouth play an outsized role. While recommendation is important across industries, Ana notes that its influence is particularly strong in education. Together, these drivers highlight a key truth: brand growth in education is inseparable from the product experience itself.

“It’s about the academic model, how students learn, the link with industry, and how studying here positions you in your professional life.”

From Funnel to Fluidity: Building One Brand in a Fragmented Journey

Achieving this recommendation, however, is harder than ever. One of the most profound shifts Ana highlights is the collapse of the traditional marketing funnel. The once-linear path, from awareness to consideration to conversion, has given way to something far more complex. “We’ve moved from a model where Google was king to a ‘search everywhere’ reality,” she explains.

Today, prospective students navigate a fluid ecosystem of touchpoints: TikTok, influencers, AI tools, social content, and multiple search environments. As a result, the role of brand has fundamentally changed. “Now the consumer doesn’t just search by product, they search by brand,” Ana notes.

Faced with this fragmentation, Universidad Europea has made a decisive strategic shift. Rather than tailoring dozens of messages for different audiences and stages of the funnel, the focus is now on building a single, consistent brand narrative. “We were diluting our investment across too many messages,” Ana admits.

The new approach centres on a universal insight: the human need to grow through learning. Whether targeting a recent school leaver or a mid-career professional, the underlying motivation remains the same. “The insight doesn’t change. Whether you’re 22 or 40, the core need is progressing in your professional life,” she explains. This shift has enabled the brand to achieve greater coherence and impact. In a world where consumers encounter brands across countless touchpoints, consistency is no longer optional; it is essential.

“To be relevant, you need to be coherent. If you’re launching 30 different messages, you won’t build a clear positioning.”

The Attention Economy: Media and Creativity Reimagined

As media consumption evolves, so too does the battle for attention. Interestingly, Ana points to a counterintuitive trend: the resurgence of traditional channels. “Formats like out-of-home are coming back because they capture attention better than digital.”

At the same time, digital channels, particularly social media, are redefining what effective content looks like. Success is no longer about polished production, but about relevance and authenticity. “The 17-year-olds don’t read long texts. They want a TikTok video, something quick and real,” Ana says. This shift is reshaping creative expectations. High-production, cinematic advertising is perceived as distant and is losing ground to content that feels credible, informal, and user-generated.

“What they expect is something real, a video shot on a phone that shows the truth,” she explains. For brands, this creates a delicate balance: how to remain authoritative and credible while also being relatable and human.

Within this context, artificial intelligence is emerging as both an opportunity and a tension point. While at Universidad Europea it is already embedded in internal processes supporting planning, briefing, and efficiency, its role in communication is more complex. “I see AI as a very positive evolution,” Ana says. However, she also notes its current limitations: “When we test AI-generated campaigns, they feel artificial. Consumers perceive them as distant.”

This insight reinforces a broader theme: in a world saturated with content, authenticity becomes a key differentiator. Technology can enhance efficiency, but it cannot replace the human connection that drives brand relevance.

“When we test AI-generated campaigns, they feel artificial. Consumers perceive them as distant.”

Lifelong Learning, Lifelong Brands

Beyond marketing tactics, Ana’s perspective reflects a deeper shift in the category itself. Education is no longer a one-time decision but a continuous journey. “Learning is no longer something you do once—it’s lifelong,” she says.

This has implications not only for product offerings but also for brand positioning. Universities are no longer just institutions; they are long-term partners in personal and professional development.

At the same time, competition is intensifying. Alternative education models, such as shorter, more affordable programmes, are challenging traditional formats. Yet, this also reinforces the importance of strong branding. In a crowded and evolving market, the brands that succeed will be those that combine credibility with clarity, consistency with creativity, and innovation with authenticity.

Reflecting on the future, Ana sees the biggest opportunities in two areas: communication and the decision-making journey. “There’s still a lot of room to communicate better, and to support people better through the decision process,” she concludes. Her advice for marketers is simple but powerful: stay true to your brand.

“The key is being authentic and legitimate to your brand, while still being relevant to your audience,” she says. In an era defined by fragmentation, speed, and constant change, that balance may well be the ultimate driver of brand growth.

“The key is being authentic and legitimate to your brand, while still being relevant to your audience.”