AN ARTISTIC hamster has become the unlikely ambassador for the Arts University Bournemouth.

Its new advert starts with the hamster on its wheel with the slogan "The wrong career can be boring."

But when the little creature climbs inside its exercise ball and starts running around to dub step music everything changes.

The hamster rolls its ball through paint to create a colourful and artistic design and the words "Do what you love and amazing things can happen" appear on the screen.

Since its online debut the 55-second video has received more than 320,822 views on social media and a total social media reach of over one million – currently at 1,033,720.

It follows recent research that the UK’s Creative Industries, which includes the film, animation and fashion industries, are now worth £76.9 billion per year to the UK economy. This massive contribution is an all-time high and equates to £8.8m per hour, or £146,000 every single minute.

This project is part of AUB’s ongoing commitment to widening access to further and higher education and progress into the creative industries.

Bournemouth Echo:

The campaign recognises that further education, higher education and career planning is a challenge in some school environments.

Head of Marketing and Communications, Simon Pride said: "We have been delighted with the response that we have seen to this campaign. The brief was to create a short, fun video that would truly engage young people and really spark their imaginations when thinking about Higher Education.

"The UK creative industries are booming, with recent research showing that one in 11 jobs are now in the creative economy. At AUB, creativity means employability and we want to inspire students to reach their true creative potential, making what they love into a career.”

Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) is the number 1 UK University for employability according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

The Destination of Leavers from Higher Education Survey 2013-2014 discovered that AUB produces graduates with the highest level of employability, with a total of 97.4 % of the class of 2013/14 progressing to employment and/or further study within six months.