SIX WORD SCHOLARSHIP

Bronze Spike

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleSIX WORD SCHOLARSHIP
BrandOES
Product / ServiceSWINBURNE ONLINE
CategoryG05. Breakthrough on a Budget
EntrantOGILVY AUSTRALIA Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation OGILVY AUSTRALIA Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement REPRISE DIGITAL Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement 2 INITIATIVE MEDIA Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Production OGILVY AUSTRALIA Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Gavin MacMillan Ogilvy Australia Managing Director
Michael McEwan Ogilvy Australia Managing Director
David Ponce de Leon Ogilvy Australia Executive Creative Director
Josh Murrell Ogilvy Australia Creative Director
Sharon Condy Ogilvy Australia Creative Director
Grga Calic Ogilvy Australia Art Director
Zac Blakemore Ogilvy Australia Copywriter
Andrew Vohmann Ogilvy Australia Senior Digital Designer
Emily Jackson Ogilvy Australia Social Media Manager
Angus Pearce Ogilvy Australia Group Account Director
Denise Cheang Ogilvy Australia Senior Account Manager
Ben Deville Ogilvy Australia Account Executive
Alexandria Maclean Ogilvy Australia Social Strategist
Brendan Hanrahan Ogilvy Australia Head of Print Production & Studio
Shannon Riches Ogilvy Australia Senior Designer
Gabbie-Joy Ocello Ogilvy Australia Finished Artist
Clydie Matruglio Ogilvy Australia Finished Artist
Mia Ruwhiu Ogilvy Australia Production Assistant
Patrick O'Farrell Ogilvy Australia Editor
Michael Sharlassian Online Education Services Advertising Manager
Simone David Online Education Services Advertising Assistant

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

The Swinburne Online 'Six Word Scholarship' is the world’s first university scholarship awarded from a single social media post. Scholarship applications tend to be complicated, including lengthy online forms, wordy essays and long lists of references and academic achievements. We created a competition in which a communications scholarship will be awarded in the place where people spend most of their time writing, reading and sharing information. Social media is no longer an afterthought for creative writers, but their first port of call. And now, thanks to the Swinburne Online 'Six Word Scholarship', it can be their gateway to a career.

Background

Situation: Swinburne Online is a university completely dedicated to making quality education more accessible to all people. However, traditional university scholarship applications still require wordy submissions of essays, personal statements, references and evidence of extracurricular achievements. An old-school, unnecessary lengthy and complicated process. Brief: In the modern world of social media and short attention spans, great communicators must be able to communicate succinctly. With this in mind, we wanted to simplify the scholarship application process by focussing only on what really matters. We needed to find an innovative solution to an age-old problem. Objectives: Swinburne Online wants to provide a completely different approach to higher learning. It was time to re-invent the scholarship application process and position our university as a category innovator in Australia and the world. And this way, create more engagement with our target audience and ultimately generate an increase in leads and course enrolments.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

It is claimed that in the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway won a wager against other writers by crafting an entire story in just six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” And ever since, the six-word story has been used as a demonstration of writing skill, the ultimate test of creativity, imagination and ingenuity taught in writing courses all around the world. When it comes to writing challenges, the six-word story has been proven against the test of time. That’s why we’ve created a scholarship with a difference, an application without the essays: The Six Word Scholarship. We researched scholarships at other academic institutions and realised their unnecessarily complicated entry requirements were keeping people from the education they really wanted. Swinburne Online wanted to allow every potential student to demonstrate their academic ability with a competitive application process that was simple to enter, but difficult to win.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our main target audience consisted of Australians aged 21-49 years old, people who wanted to pursue a higher education degree in Media and Communications with interests in freelance writing, online education, books, news, career news and general information. We also took into account recent relevant job search history and targeted those most likely to engage with an online university writing course. This was not an idea designed for standard advertising. We knew that to make the application process easier, we had to change it. Swinburne Online has always been a digital-first institution, so we used a social-first media plan, focusing on Facebook and Instagram. Our approach was simple. We needed to challenge the existing requirements for a scholarship application. With this in mind, we had to develop a completely new way to apply that was relevant to our target audience, easy to complete and reinforced Swinburne Online innovative education positioning.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

Simplicity is the ultimate demonstration of writing skill and as such, simplicity was the cornerstone of The Swinburne Online Six Word Scholarship. Our brand activation featured sponsored posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, targeting a national audience. To enter, people simply had to submit an original story in just six words, directly in our post’s comments. Every original story which adhered to the six-word limit was considered a successful entry. The winner was selected by industry professionals, including an online education specialist and an award-winning author. We also took advantage of an existing media buy, using a single billboard in Melbourne’s CBD to support our campaign and drive traffic to our social pages. The entry period was three weeks, from Friday 24 May until Wednesday 12 June, with applications closing two weeks before the final course enrolment date to allow for a digital retargeting campaign, further encouraging paid enrolments.

List the results (30% of vote)

The ‘Six Word Scholarship’ exceeded all expectations, becoming the most successful social media activation Swinburne Online has ever produced. With a total budget under $10,000 AUD, we achieved: • 1,822 total entry applications for the Six Word Scholarship • + 397,000 impressions • 80x above average organic social media engagement • 8.6x total reach above average campaign • 134% increase in course brochure downloads • 223% increase in web traffic during the promo period • 49x conversion rate above most recent campaign • 2x paid enrolment applications during activation period • One winner earned their place at Swinburne Online with their original story: “So, one for the honeymoon suite?” • Our winner was Kerry Parker, a 45 years old single mother from Burleigh Waters in Queensland who said: “I always wanted to return to study and winning ‘The Six Word Scholarship’ made me think ‘I can’t wait to do this!’

Links

Social Media URL