THINK STEM.
THINK QUT.
CAMPAIGN 2020

QUT changes their STEM recruitment efforts to adjust to the impacts of COVID-19, which results in an increase to their undergraduate applications by 17.9% YoY.

Amid increased local, domestic, and international competition for STEM students, QUT needed to create clear space in-market by demonstrating their leadership in all areas of STEM, with a focus on attracting high-performing students.

By repositioning QUT as the provider of choice for STEM, QUT was able to attract and engage potential students with on-going communications throughout the end-of-the-year recruitment campaign.  

The campaign centred around the idea that whatever you want to achieve in STEM, it can be achieved at QUT, Queensland’s leading university of technology.

We have the credibility and strength in this sector because technology is in our DNA.

    The campaign direction makes a bold, market-leading statement that positioned QUT squarely as the place to go if you are considering a career in STEM. That positions QUT as the authority in STEM study.

    Through the strategic development process, QUT established a new strategic marketing plan using a STEM specific student user journey map to identify four phases of the campaign.

    Phase 1: Attract

    As students began to evaluate what course and university was right for them, QUT set out to attract high-achieving year 12 students interested in STEM to consider the university.

    To connect with the audience, QUT aimed to inspire students to take actions with positive outcomes of the future by showing them how they can become a part of their own narrative.

    This approach initiated the data acquisition strategy, which allowed QUT to continue on-going conversations and nurture leads throughout the year.

    Initiatives and creative

    • Match My Skills Quiz
    • ‘Careers with STEM’ partnership with editorial content and ads
    • STEM Decision Tree Brochure
    • Ready, STEM, Go! Videos
    • Video
    • Social
    • Big Mobile
    • Outdoor in-situ

    Phase 2: Engage

    In Phase 2, QUT continued to engage and nurture new leads from the first phase and post-Open Day, delivering messaging focusing on the positive outcomes of the future by highlighting existing content, including research and development pieces. Also included in this phase was the development of printed collateral for the STEM faculty that could be taken into schools.

    The collateral provided to students included a simple and engaging ‘decision tree’, which assesses what they enjoyed and were good at, eventually placing them in a STEM stream for them to further explore.

    It combines the smarts of QUT’s Match My Skills platform along with some fun, engaging questions related to pop culture in order to draw people in and give them some discussion points among peers and with their families.

    Initiatives and creative

    • Video
    • Social
    • Big Mobile
    • Outdoor in-situ

    Phase 3: Select

    As students continued to focus on their prospective area of study, for many, making the right decision on which degree to apply for and what university to attend was top of mind. They needed to ensure that whatever path they took, it would lead to a successful career.

    It was in this phase that we needed prospective students to see the opportunity that studying STEM at QUT offers, which was done by promoting messaging around being job ready and getting the skills needed for tomorrow’s careers, through graduate and student testimonials.

    Initiatives and creative

    • Video
    • Social
    • Big Mobile
    • Outdoor in-situ

    Phase 4: Convert

    This was the final phase in which students needed to start deciding on where and what degree they would apply for, if they had not already. QUT’s goal was to reassure potential students that they were making the right decision by making STEM at QUT their first preference. 

    During this time, QUT drove urgent action by promoting individual STEM courses, while driving traffic to the course pages to learn more.

    Initiatives and creative

    • Social
    • Verizon – Programmatic Display 
    • Big Mobile
    • STEM@QUT Landing Page

    CAMPAIGN RESULTS

    OBJECTIVE 1
    Improve QUT’s market position in STEM degrees

    RESULT

    • QUT’s STEM undergraduate first preference applications were up 17.9% YoY
    OBJECTIVE 2
    Drive landing page visits to the new STEM@QUT page

    RESULT

    • CTR on programmatic traffic driving 4x higher than industry benchmark
    • Campaign directly drove 26,000+ users to engage with landing page [equates to 2 in 3 prospective undergrad science and engineering prospects (source:GWI 2020)]
    OBJECTIVE 3
    Deliver greater context and drive engagement with prospective students, parents, teachers and guidance officers through long-form video content.

    RESULT

    • The Ready STEM Go! series achieved 93,327 video views across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
    • High levels of engagement with episodes which on average were 25min+
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