From the Nominator

The COVID-19 crisis created a major disruption for Australian universities and Year 12 students alike. At the University of Newcastle, high schools in our communities told us that our prospective undergraduate students were feeling anxious and uncertain about their next steps. Meanwhile, given the sudden restrictions placed on international students, competition for domestic students was increasing rapidly. 

Suddenly, more universities were paying close attention to our traditional core catchment areas. We knew we had to reimagine our entire approach to student recruitment and school engagement.

Our solution? A campaign that drew on powerful messages of empathy and reassurance. “More than Ever,” students could rely on the University of Newcastle for support. Multiple divisions came together to transform the undergraduate application process from a daunting experience, to a welcoming, streamlined journey with concrete offers of assistance and guidance along the way: support hotlines, comprehensive guides, and an innovative program that provided five ATAR points (used for university entry) to compensate for the challenges of 2020. 

Our Marketing and Communications team partnered with our Admissions team, Academic division and Enabling Pathways teams in a whole-of-university approach to helping and responding to the needs of our Year 12 high school students. And it worked. During the peak of the More than Ever campaign, with early offer applications closing, we grew our Year 12 high school student applications by 15.3% YOY, while the rest of the sector was only up 5.1% YOY.

From the Judges

A strong comprehensive campaign that included a lot of components, from bus wraps to digital to video to website. The hotline itself was impressive,  with more than 2,500 conversations. Having a campaign developed completely around helping students navigate their college during a very difficult time was smart and admirable. This university was addressing this issue well before others were doing it. The video was well liked, with a fun theme to lighten up the mood a bit. The overall campaign was well done, had nice creative, and had strong results. The campaign was done all in-house, and they targeted their audience very well.