Delivering an integrated brand campaign targeting young Emiratis to study locally and prepare to succeed in a truly global world.

NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) is a research university with a fully integrated liberal arts and science degree-granting campus in the UAE offering students state-of-the-art facilities, diverse academic courses and an international student experience with pathways for individual exploration and growth.

As a respected institution known as one of the most international campuses in the world, NYUAD required a campaign that would communicate its value proposition, key differentiators, and academic offering to Emiratis across the UAE.

Leveraging audience insights to better understand motives, behaviours and attitudes, we crafted a creative strategy and deployed an online and offline media plan that would aim to deliver awareness, communicate brand messaging and drive student enrolments.

Challenge

The primary objective of the campaign was to position NYUAD top of mind for university selection and drive MQLs (inquiries and applications).

Although New York University is globally renowned for its innovative curriculum and tailored programs, its Abu Dhabi campus required more awareness among Emiratis (students and parents), whilst delivering the value and benefit of a liberal arts degree, scholarship and graduate outcome in a creative and disruptive way.

With historical data and previous enrolled students, the campaign meant we needed to diversify audience targeting and drive further interest among younger students.

Solution

Launching NYUAD’s first UAE brand campaign meant we needed to develop a campaign that our audiences would be highly inspired by. Working with the internal marketing and admissions teams to better understand NYUAD’s key messaging and USPs, we conceptualised and created a positioning line ‘Global Success Starts Here’, providing audiences with an international setting that opens opportunities to the world.

Delivering on the entire production process, the key visual represented joyous graduates looking over Abu Dhabi’s cityscape, carrying a self-accomplished posture in a traditional branded graduation gown. This simple approach connected educational success and invited students to add their own hopes and dreams into the outcome of graduating from NYUAD.

The key visual was delivered in English and Arabic, and adapted across Social Media, Google Display Network, and Offline channels to create maximum impact and brand recall. Media bookings included DOOH, Unipoles, and Lampposts across Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Fujairah, whilst also supported with always-on Paid Social and Digital ads running in parallel.

We ran multiple ad-sets simultaneously to test messaging and optimised spends accordingly to drive higher quality leads. Digital paid media drove targeted traffic to a dedicated landing page, where students and parents could discover more information about NYUAD’s offering and apply within.

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