Universities Australia launches new digital campaign via creative agency Hello I’m Venus

Hello I’m Venus has today launched a digital campaign for their client Universities Australia, to promote their new World Class strategy.  Hello I’m Venus won the national pitch for Universities Australia in July this year, after a tender process against 3 other agencies.

The World Class strategy, which focuses on the concept that ‘the world is your campus’, is part of an agreement between Universities Australia and the Australian Government to promote opportunities for students to study overseas, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. It highlights the life-changing experiences, opportunities and rewards that studying overseas can offer potential students.

Universities Australia is a peak industry body representing 39 Australian universities in the public interest, both nationally and internationally, and worked with Hello I’m Venus to develop the World Class strategy into a digital campaign.

Research findings into attitudes of current students found 3 clear sub-groups in today’s Generation-G(lobal), with one of these sub-groups being identified as the key target audience. This group’s key barriers to participation were found to be largely centred around finance, family commitments and perceived level of organisation required. However, it was found that this sub-group take inspiration from their own peers – and the World Class strategy was borne out of this.

The World Class campaign is completely digital and mobile and features 3 actual students who have been part of mobility programs, and were filmed on a green-screen so they could be built into the site interactivity – rather than use a typical testimonial video. Users can click on 5 separate questions for each student, and then listen to their individual experiences.

The rest of the site contains high level information including financial assistance, eligibility, and a prompt to sign up for future information.

Says Belinda Robinson, chief execuive of Universities Australia: “World Class does not promote any particular program, but provides information on the full suite of Government and institutional programmes on offer.  Most of all, World Class, through students own stories, seeks to inspire and motivate our students to study overseas and reap the life-long rewards that the experience will give them.”

Says Miles Mainwaring, planning director at Hello I’m Venus: “Research shows that a key characteristic of youth audiences is that they tend to be led by their most forward-looking and thinking peers: the opinion leaders and early adopters. As this campaign expands, and we roll out the full digital, social and mobile elements in 2014 we aim to develop a set of content platforms where all of the core inspirational content is provided by the students themselves in a highly collaborative, social and sharable way. We’re really excited, as it is our view that social media and digital in general has to date been incredibly underutilised by tertiary education marketers in Australia for influencing their Millennial, digital native-audiences.”

Executive Creative Director: Bec Brideson

Digital Developer: Matthew Storey