The Brief
UCAS, the University and College Admissions Service, supports over a million young people each year to make positive choices that play a huge part in their futures.
Engagement with UCAS can start as early as Year 9, and over time, they developed a sophisticated ecosystem that evolved with the needs, wants, and behaviours of students-to-be.
As an independent charity, the revenue they generate helps UCAS to continue on their mission to support the next generations. That is why they collaborate with brands who, like them, want to support young people and provide value to their experience and decisions – by offering promotions and partnerships across their channels.
Borne was consulted to develop a campaign positioning and identity that would raise awareness across brands and their agencies of UCAS’ media offering – particularly as part of their presence at MAD//Fest.
The Challenge
UCAS is very well known amongst young people and universities. However, for adults, they are likely a thing of the past and it’s something to do with unis and Clearing.
We had to find a way that makes brands aware that UCAS offers media opportunities in a B2B context. Part of that is a matter of advertising – particularly top of the funnel. But we first had to find a compelling story that would make brands consider UCAS on their next ‘Gen Z brief’.
We equally had to be very careful on the positioning and wording. UCAS is highly trusted amongst young people – on par with the NHS and BBC, in fact – and protecting its reputation and trust was paramount. Therefore, we had to be absolutely clear that UCAS does not sell their data and is very selective in the brands they want to work with.
The Solution
When thinking about relevance in a marketing context, it’s often a short-hand to ‘being cool’ particularly when talking about or to young people.
However, Richard Shotton once spoke about the fact that the probability of trying new brands increases by at least 75% after a life event.
Armed with this insight, the idea was to emphasise to brands that UCAS offers an opportunity for brands to be relevant in the lead up to and during what is for many young people the first major life moment.
The Campaign Creative
Within the campaign creative, we portrayed a range of university moments that through full bleed imagery and fun headlines, made the audience realise that there are many more moments than just results day. There are so many moments at university – both big and small – that we remember as adults: packing up your teenage bedroom and loading it into the family car. Opening the student hall doors and meeting the people who become your best friend. The shock of doing your first big shop. An awkward first date. All the way through to throwing that mortarboard into the air.
If you can play a part in that as a brand, it’s super powerful in building those core memory structures.
The body form copy allowed us to add context and tell marketing professionals about how UCAS is uniquely placed to support brands in adding value during these moments because they understand young people like no one else – so the potential in terms of engagement and ROI constantly outperforms category benchmarks.
And as UCAS is a charity, every pound spent by brands is an investment in supporting the next generations to make positive choices, and as such provides a broader, more altruistic nature to any collaboration too.
The Results
Through LinkedIn, UCAS’ team was able to directly target the brands and their agencies that UCAS had identified as potential partners. But the pinnacle of the campaign took place at MAD//Fest 2024: through a big impactful exhibition stand at the event, UCAS’ sales team were able to engage with brands and agencies – telling the story of UCAS and why it matters to brands.
A combination of a big emotive backdrop, added to with a snapshot leaflet, a beautiful hi-spec brochure, and interactive activities and prizes aimed to leave a memorable impression.
And what’s more? UCAS and Borne combined forces on the first day where CMO Dave Penney and our own Head of Strategy, Chris Bosher, spoke about the importance and tools to mean more in the moments that matter to young people across the UK. If you’d like to listen to the talk, you can do that here.
