As the leading university in Australia for Indigenous enrolments, the University of Newcastle is committed to collaboration with our Indigenous communities, and advancement of Indigenous education and culture. To demonstrate the depth of our commitment to a national audience, we partnered with our local Rugby League team, the Newcastle Knights, and sponsored the Indigenous Round. The Indigenous Round has tremendous significance in Indigenous communities, as 30 percent of this sport’s players are Indigenous, and this series of games celebrates the importance of Indigenous heritage and culture.
Due to COVID-19, we had to reconsider our entire Newcastle Knights sponsorship contract, which was originally centred around match day activations and face-to-face activities. In discussion with the Knights, we leveraged an exciting opportunity to sponsor the Knights Indigenous Round. With limited time to deliver, we developed 12 days of digital ads on the Newcastle Knights website, filmed a player/student interview, and coordinated the placement of our logo on the back of the Knights Indigenous Round jersey. This multi-channel campaign also featured social media posts, EDMs, competitions, and PR. This content resulted in some of our most highly viewed and shared content on our owned social media channels.
This partnership allowed us to convey important messages about our strong track record of graduating Indigenous students. Sponsoring the Knights Indigenous Round also evoked a sense of pride among students, staff, and alumni.
From the Judges
The judges appreciated the good use of strategy in this marketing campaign to engage the larger community in the university’s values in support of the Indigenous community. The entry did an outstanding job showing the impact and the detail of the marketing event campaign. We appreciate the great partnership to support this message, and the clever marketing placement.
