Successful with cat memes at the Social Media Prize

Second place goes to marketing team from Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences

As part of the University Barcamp 2025, the prize for an innovative and outstanding achievement in the field of social media communication at a university was awarded for the fifth time. The marketing team from Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences took second place with a cat video about the student life cycle. A total of 85 entries were submitted by universities from all over Germany.

Cat content is very popular: an estimated 6.9 million cat images can currently be found on the internet. Some are shared so frequently that they are known as memes by a wide audience. Eyleen Jessen and Ann-Kristin Hitzemann are keeping an eye on trends like these. Together with two students, they are responsible for Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences. There they showcase student projects, draw attention to information events or take their followers on campus tours. ‘We try to present the university's unique selling points in a humorous way to attract people to our channel. They find a good mix of fact-based information and a friendly insight into student life,’ says Ann-Kristin Hitzemann.

The award-winning video humorously accompanies first-year students on their journey from initial orientation to passing their exams. Well-known cat memes were used for this. The idea was well received: Within a very short time, the animal student life circle became the most clicked video at the university. For this reason, Eyleen Jessen and Ann-Kristin Hitzemann submitted it for the Social Media Prize of the Federal Association of University Communication. ‘We thought we could just give it a go. But we didn't think we had much chance of winning the prize,’ says Eyleen Jessen. 

A jury selected eleven entries from 85 submissions based on set evaluation criteria, which were voted for during the Bundesverband Hochschulkommunikation's university bar camp. First place went to Nuremberg Institute of Technology Georg Simon Ohm. Third place went to Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

The video of Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences can be seen at: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3aErkpNxXd/