Background

The higher education market is competitive. It’s cluttered with similar messaging, and much of the time, universities end up promoting the sector, not themselves.

Over the last few years, RMIT has launched several very different campaigns in market, as a result, the brand was not easily recognisable, and how we positioned ourselves in market was unclear.

Idea

After a period of 12 months spent reimagining and refining the RMIT brand, we felt it was time for us to re-enter the market with a new campaign that truly exemplifies what the university values and stands for: hands-on, future-focused, connected to the real world, and part of the urban fabric of Melbourne.

We deliberately chose real students as talent, who are passionate about their projects, doing something innovative, putting their learning into action, not merely models smiling at the camera. Throughout the process, we utilised data from previous brand tracking exercises and audience sentiment scores to adjust and uplift certain parts of our messaging.

Impact

The ad ran across BVOD and social channels, it also featured across our RMIT homepage and on a giant 5 x 8m screen at the front of campus. Cut-downs were made for specific audiences like prospective STEM, Humanities or Art & Design students. We also utilised OOH advertising, positioning 217 panels throughout Melbourne in April, which reached over 1.5 million viewers in total. We extended the campaign across our organic social channels, across the billboards we own around all RMIT campuses, on every digital sign across our locations and with media placements we owned with our partners (like cinema ads that play before each film screening at ACMI).

The advertising received over 5 million impressions in total. The click-through-rate of the campaign was 900% higher than our average for marketing campaigns. The campaign drove a 27% increase in unprompted brand awareness and was seen as an authentic and impactful relaunch of the RMIT voice in market.