The Brief

A key insight which drove our campaign was that the months leading up to the A levels are often a highly stressful period for pre-university students. Although most universities expend great effort in their admission campaigns, these have traditionally been restricted to advertisements and events that were largely informative and impersonal. As such, instead of running admission ads that might be ignored by students during the exam period, we decided to seize the opportunity to demonstrate our empathy towards this stressful period of their lives, and simultaneously, help to reinforce SUTD’s proposition – “A Better World by Design”. We decided to distribute SUTD Survival kits to pre-university students. The key ‘direct’ elements of the campaign was the “Exam Survival Kits” that were distributed. This kit contained useful items such as stickers, notebooks and sleeping masks that served as an encouragement to help students tide over the stressful exam period.

Creative Execution

A teaser video was first released in order to foster anticipation amongst the pre-university students, which was later uploaded and shared on SUTD’s Facebook page as well as those of several junior colleges. The teaser featured a wooden crate, with the words “Aid Has Arrived” travelling through a school compound. This was followed by the official launch of our campaign, where “Exam Survival Kits” were distributed to pre-university students, which contained useful items such as stickers, notebooks etc. that served as an encouragement to help students tide over the stressful exam period. To build up anticipation and generate hype, students were not informed beforehand of the dates which the “Survival Kits” would be distributed in their respective schools. As a supplement to our campaign, we also launched an Instagram contest (#mugharderplaylater) in conjunction with the distribution of our Exam Survival Kits.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

The campaign was targeted at all prospective students, from recent graduates of junior colleges to those in polytechnics. Being a new player in the market, our target audience is not very familiar with SUTD. As students were preparing for their A levels, we decided to seize this opportunity to demonstrate our empathy, and simultaneously, help to reinforce SUTD’s proposition. During the distribution of the “Exam Survival Kits”, our target audience got to interact with some of the SUTD staff members, allowing them to gain a better understanding of SUTD and to encourage them to attend the Admissions and Career Talk.

Results

Our campaign received an overwhelming response for SUTD’s Admissions and Career Talk held in December 2014. The unanticipated demand led SUTD to close its registration a week before the event, as it exceeded its maximum capacity of 300 students (Source: SUTD). On Instagram, the campaign garnered a total of 4842 likes, generating great PR value with zero PR dollars spent. It reaffirmed the fact that great ideas are what make effective campaigns, and need not necessarily involve huge advertising budgets.