University of Gloucestershire

Connecting with a world on the move

Over the University of Gloucestershire’s 200-year history it has been in a near constant state of change. Evolving from Mechanics Institute to School of Art, Anglican Foundation to Training College, the University has always reflected and driven the zeitgeist. This ability to remain relevant is key to the University’s core purpose and vital to the students it serves. But when so much is changing, how do you present a consistent story that both reaches out and stands out?

After two centuries, we helped the University answer this question once and for all.

Insight

Like most universities over the last few years, UoG had seen significant shifts both internally and externally – changes in leadership, new strategies, and a refreshed brand were just the tip of the iceberg. However, previous work on the brand hadn’t addressed ‘who’ the University is and ‘what’ they stand for, leading to a lack of stand out in the market. The brand needed to help differentiate UoG and position it as both aspirational and inspirational to the right audience.

Our initial brief was to create a brand campaign distinct from existing recruitment campaigns, but designed to act as a halo, increasing brand awareness and positive engagement with those campaigns.

We began by exploring and testing the University’s initial thinking about who they were and what they stood for with students and staff. Immediately it became clear that the brand couldn’t be static or tied to a fixed point in time. Just like the University, the brand had to have movement, momentum, and energy to standout, and more character, vibrancy, and purpose to feel meaningful and differentiated.

Ideas

To inject this energy, we focused the campaign proposition on the transformative conditions the University creates and the dynamic processes they facilitate. We moved from a static message of connection to an active story of connecting.

With this new direction, we developed a storytelling framework that made it easy for the whole University to show the incredible moments, stories and experiences made possible by its unique environment and people. We encouraged UoG to move the story on from just talking about what you achieve to showing what you feel – a much more emotional journey.

Finally, we focused the campaign on telling the stories that matter most to the audience through content pillars formed from the small, personal moments of connection that lead to long-term change and fulfilling big ambitions. These moments combine what connecting feels like, with what connecting can do.

Impact

To deliver the campaign we developed a simplified visual language that is honest and immediate, capturing the raw emotion and the scale of the excitement experienced at these moments of connection.

Together these elements form a multi-channel campaign unlike any the University has produced before, generating unprecedented levels of buy-in internally and resonating with both prospective and current students across all activities.

Initial deliverables included campaign guidelines, refreshed assets, bespoke photography and a hero film, and these have since evolved into a renewed brand house that continues to influence and shape the development of the wider brand.

The result is a brand that vividly brings the power of people connecting to life, and the power of the UoG into the lives of a whole new audience.