Design Challenge and Design Ideas

Institute of Art, Design + Technology Dún Laoghaire (IADT) is Ireland’s only institute of art, design and technology with a specific focus on the creative cultural and technological sectors. We worked with the IADT marketing and communications team to develop a promotional campaign for the 2022 Open Day. The result was a successful campaign that achieved high visibility for IADT across multiple channels, resulted in the creation of a suite of social-first content, drove strong engagement across native and advertising channels, and led to a high attendance at the Open Day, making it their biggest Open Day yet.

As part of this campaign, we were commissioned to produce IADT’s first ever cinema advert, targeted towards students who are applying for higher education through the CAO system. The brief was to deliver a 30 second video for the IADT CAO recruitment campaign; for use in both cinema advertising and social media applications.

How the brief was fulfilled

We developed a design solution that would resonate with students, parents, and other identified audiences. The core message of the campaign, You+, underscored individual creative empowerment while establishing IADT as a sector leader in creative technology.

The campaign identity capitlised on the + symbol and used it as a framing device for images, video and messaging. This allowed for the juxtaposition of the diverse range of offerings available at IADT and gave the campaign the opportunity to visually explore what creativity looks like in the 21st century.

As part of the campaign strategy, we identified the need to create a suite of video content that would resonate with the student audience, build on the campaign concept, and allow us to advertise on student-centric platforms like TikTok and Reels. We created two styles of videos: Talking Head videos, where a student spoke directly to camera, with subtitles on screen, and POV videos, tapping into a common TikTok trend to create multiple IADT related scenes. We created and released a total of 20 social videos, which were used as advertising and organic content on Instagram and TikTok.

We developed an advert to be used in cinemas and social media. Told from the perspective of a student at IADT, it speaks to future students and communicates what the essence of IADT is, and what life here is all about. To emphasise the campaign messaging, we employed 3D typography composited into scenes, with textures informed by the institution’s environments, such as concrete walls, lighting and glass. This approach embedded the campaign into our footage in a naturalistic manner that created standout moments.

The campaign achieved all aims and targets set out for Open Day attendance and sign ups. The campaign saw the development of a large suite of promotional assets across a wide range of new marketing channels, ensuring high visibility of IADT among audiences in the target locations. throughout the campaign.

Campaign achievements include:
69% increase in Open Day attendance vs 2021
77% increase in 2022 Open Day registrations vs 2021
10% increase in 2023 CAO applications vs 2022