QUT has won the Best University Marketing Campaign category at the 2024 Future Campus awards.
Announced in Adelaide last night as part of Australia’s HE FEST, the award recognised how QUT has engaged a whole new demographic and cut through the market by defining ‘real’.
Executive Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment, Xavier Amouroux, said he was thrilled to receive the award.
“This campaign is a collaboration between our department and all faculties and divisions. It is a celebration of our students, alumni, academics, researchers, staff, community and industry partners.
“Congratulations to the whole QUT marketing team for their massive work in making it happen alongside our creative advertising agency VML,” he said.
Grounded in an extensive market research project, the campaign reviewed the university’s brand positioning and found that the existing ‘University for the real world’ slogan, used for more than two decades, was recognised but not driving engagement with prospective students.
“Despite being a positive core brand attribute, this tagline had lost meaning as students’ needs evolved over time,” Mr Amouroux said.
QUT reshaped the brand proposition and re-examined a new media mix to grab attention, before settling on a new campaign slogan that tweaked the original without losing the recognition factor: ‘Real is…’
“The development of the campaign involved contributions from QUT students and colleagues across the university to help shape the strategy, curate proof points and support with talent and spaces for production,” Mr Amouroux said.
“The platform helps QUT bring into focus the real and unfiltered university experience: the highs, the lows and the in-between moments presenting an authentic picture of student experiences and the multitude of ways that success can be defined.
“Most university marketing focuses solely on the end goal, the achievements, and familiar success stories, not what it takes to get there. So, this approach is not only ownable by QUT, but helps the university stand out from competitors.”
Future Campus said that the entry “demonstrated a commendable depth of planning and university-wide engagement to drive the development of an effective strategy with strong executions that managed to achieve a fresh direction for creative without losing two decades of brand investment”.
Media contact:
Lauren Baxter, QUT Media, 07 3138 3984, lauren.baxter@qut.edu.au
After hours: 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
