SOAS University of London
An interconnected campaign for a globally-connected institution.
SOAS helps its students to make sense of the connections between world history, politics, finance and current events. Our campaign uses these connections as a creative springboard to engage, surprise and challenge.
Sector
Education
What we did
Discovery & Definition
- Audits
- Consultation
- Workshops
- Interviews
Design Development
- Creative concepts
- Messaging and tone of voice
- Campaign communications
- Campaign identity
- Content creation
- Digital expression
- Print design
- Art direction
- Place-making and installations
- Event branding
Delivery
- Brand guidelines
- Brand toolkits
- Brand activation
- Motion design and video
- Installation
Context
Where you choose to study may well determine the route you take through life. With an intrinsically internationalist outlook, and with students from over 135 countries, SOAS University of London helps students to understand, and interpret, the interconnectedness of our modern world. It’s an approach that, through excellent teaching and research, instills a sense of actively engaged global citizenship in all SOAS students.
Solution
Building on an existing brand identity, we helped the Institute to devise a recruitment campaign to We were determined to place this concept of interconnectedness at the heart of our three year student recruitment campaign. With a brief to attract a consistently high calibre of new students, our aim was to devise an intelligent, active and thought-provoking campaign. Because – as we say in our campaign messaging – until you understand the connections, you’ll never change the world.
We decided to work with Baxter & Bailey because of their excellent track record in the HE sector. I’m glad we made the decision. The BB team worked hard to understand us and our challenges, and delivered a campaign identity which communicates with a singular idea at its heart. Not only a lovely idea, but beautifully executed too.
Impact
Our brand campaign for SOAS resulted in an increase in undergraduate applicants for the institution, against an overall reduction in marketing spend, an improvement that has continued in the time since the three year campaign was first launched.
For any student campaign to be effective it needs to work brilliantly across multiple applications. The Baxter & Bailey team thought hard about that challenge, devising a flexible solution as well as the tools and guidelines for our team to roll out the work consistently, creatively and comprehensively.
Special Thanks
Thanks to David Winstanley for inviting us to collaborate on another great project, to Jack Neenan for leading the campaign roll-out with creativity and flair, and to SOAS Director Baroness Valerie Amos for the commitment to our ideas.
