PROJECT U

TitlePROJECT U
BrandUNITEC INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Product / ServiceEDUCATION
CategoryA02. Use of Magazines/Newspapers
EntrantOPEN COMMUNICATIONS Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Media Agency 2 OPEN COMMUNICATIONS Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Entrant Company OPEN COMMUNICATIONS Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Media Agency OPEN COMMUNICATIONS Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
Matt O'sullivan OPEN Managing Director
Te Roi Dodson OPEN Communications Manager
Kylie Turner OPEN Communications Assistant
Carly Wigley UNITEC Director Brand Experience
Alistair Kirk UNITEC Director Customer Journey
Tony Bradbourne SPECIAL Executive Creative Director
Rob Jack SPECIAL Executive Creative Director
Michael Redwood SPECIAL Managing Partner
Aimee Maud SPECIAL Account Director

Results and Effectiveness

From a Unitec perspective; student recruitment, enrollments and retention is now stronger than ever. A tertiary institute that finally used the language young people deals in. Creating significant buzz for the brand and driving business results - Conversion rates from inquiry to enrollment increased 30% - The number of new students increased 15% compared to the previous year

Creative Execution

In a world first; we drew content from across the globe, aggregated it into one space, and only published what the individual found inspiring. Unitec partnered with Bauer Media, a globally networked publisher with over 1300 media properties and a repository of some 150,000 individual pieces of content. This content aggregation offered us a limitless supply, the clever part was then funneling down this content so each element was appropriate to the individual. In effect making the content the communications device, and the means to help the individual find their passion. Young people were invited to answer questions about themselves via a website, and using proprietary software with an algorithm each answer sourced relevant content from within the Bauer Media network. For each participant a unique magazine was created, printed and bound to full publishing standards.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Unitec is a famous tertiary institute in New Zealand that caters for 18 to 25 years olds. While these young people have great potential, a big problem is that they are unsure of what they want to do in life. Of which choosing what to study is a significant step. At the heart of the problem was the difference in the way young people make their decisions and how tertiary institutes engage them. Too often they were being forced into rational conversations. Whereas in reality their decision-making is an emotional experience inspired by a relevant piece of media content – a magazine article, Youtube clip, radio show or blog. But this resource of unguided and unspecific media searching is limitless and different for everyone. Project U was born, an initiative to harness the enormous power of media content, and use it to help make decisions about futures.