This edition

Campaigns are funny things. They don't really have a finish line. 

You don't launch one, tick it off the list and move on. If they're working properly, they're always changing. We try new ideas, see what happens, learn from the results and figure out what to do next. 

That's really why we're launching On the campaign trail... 

Every so often we'll take you behind the scenes of the College's campaigning work. Sometimes we'll share the latest recruitment picture. Sometimes we'll show you a new campaign film before everyone else sees it. Sometimes we'll explain why we've tried something that might seem a little unexpected. 

The idea is simple. Rather than just showing you the finished campaign, we'd like to show you how we got there. 

And in time, we’d like to make as much content available to you as possible so you can share it too. More on that in future editions.

This time, we're updating you about two campaigns with very different audiences, but which share one common goal – improving podiatry for the future. 

Inspire Movement, Choose Podiatry – what we're seeing 

When the College announced a 28% increase in podiatry admissions at the end of 2025, it felt like an important moment for the profession.  

But one good year doesn't make a long-term trend (or, as we're at the end of July, one swallow doesn't make a summer). The question we've been asking ever since is whether that momentum is continuing. 

Over the past few months we've been speaking with universities across the UK to understand how recruitment is shaping up for the 2026/27 academic year. 

The picture is still appearing, but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. 

Several universities have already met or exceeded their recruitment targets. Undergraduate recruitment remains particularly strong, apprenticeship numbers continue to grow and foundation routes are helping to build the future workforce.  

That isn't the whole story, though. Some programmes are still expected to recruit through Clearing, while MSc recruitment remains more variable between providers.  

That's useful information because it tells us where to focus next. 

We'll continue supporting undergraduate recruitment, but we'll also spend more time promoting postgraduate routes into the profession during the months ahead. 

That's one of the principles behind this campaign. We try not to make decisions based on hunches. We let the evidence direct us towards the next piece of work.

New stories coming soon 

While all that's been happening, we've also been busy creating new campaign content. 

We've filmed current podiatry students, podiatrists and educators and started putting together a new collection of stories that show what studying podiatry is really like. 

You'll start seeing those over the coming weeks. 

For now, we'd love to give you a sneak preview. 

Super Striders – looking beyond the numbers 

Super Striders has a different job to do. It's not trying to recruit future podiatrists. 

It's trying to help more people understand when podiatry could help them. 

Since the campaign launched at the start of the year, we've generated more than 500,000 impressions, over 10,000 engagements, more than 11,000 visits from television advertising and over 64,000 Google Search impressions.  

We're pleased with those numbers. But the figures on their own don't tell us very much. 

What interests us is what is beneath them. 

One of the clearest patterns we've seen is how people begin looking for help. 

Very few people search for a podiatrist first. Instead, they search for a problem. Like heel pain, corns or chilblains. 

If our campaign appears at that point, many people then take the next step and search for "podiatrist near me". Current campaign data suggests those searches show strong intent to seek professional care.  

That's exactly the journey we hoped to encourage. To raise awareness. Spark a curiosity and help people find a podiatrist when they need one. 

Trying things 

Not every campaign idea arrives fully formed. Some begin with a simple conversation. 

This summer we found ourselves asking a slightly odd question. Could we reach football fans in the middle of the FIFA World Cup? 

That conversation eventually led to Super Striders appearing on branded beer mats in pubs across London during the knockout stages of the tournament, each carrying a QR code linking people to information about podiatry.  

Will we do it again? Maybe. Maybe not. 

That depends entirely on what the results tell us. One of the nice things about campaigns is that you're allowed to experiment. 

Some ideas become permanent. Whereas others simply teach you something useful. 

Why stories matter 

One lesson keeps coming back to us. People tell the story of podiatry better than we ever can. 

That's why Super Striders is built around real patients. 

Georgina talks about how podiatry helped her stay active and continue competing in Roller Derby. 

Soon you'll also meet Gary, whose story shows the difference podiatry has made while living with club foot.  

Facts and evidence matter. But stories are what people often remember. 

What have we learned? 

Every campaign leaves us knowing something we didn't know before. Here are a few of the biggest lessons from the past few months. 

• Undergraduate recruitment continues to look encouraging as we march towards the end of 2026, while postgraduate recruitment needs ongoing attention.  

• People usually search for symptoms before they search for podiatry.  

• Small experiments can produce surprisingly useful insights.  

• The strongest campaign decisions are almost always the ones backed by evidence rather than instinct.  

What’s next then? 

The next few months should be particularly interesting. 

We'll be watching the university recruitment picture as Clearing finishes, releasing more patient stories through Super Striders and continuing to test new ideas as both campaigns develop. 

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this roundup. It’s not just to tell you what we've done. But to show you what we're discovering along the way too.