AGSM and The Garden Agency win NSW AMI prize for brand revitalisation.
Equipping a new generation of leaders to make an impact in an accelerated world.
Are you making it in an accelerated world? This is the core question behind the AGSM @ UNSW Business School’s brand campaign which took home the NSW Brand Revitalisation gong at the AMI Excellence Awards in Melbourne on 17 October 2019.
The winning brand revitalisation has seen a significant increase in student enrolments, brand health indicators, awareness and digital engagement since the first series launched in mid 2018 and continued through a second series in 2019.
“There’s a misguided belief out there that MBAs don’t hold as much value as they used to and that’s just not true,” says Jodie Metaxiotis, Partner at The Garden Agency. “AGSM is a leading MBA school. To harness its existing brand equity, we injected it with a newly articulated purpose and refreshed narrative describing how MBA-equipped leaders can make an impact and contribute to a progressive society.”
In a disrupted sector, management education is becoming increasingly commoditised. AGSM needed to strategically refresh its brand to differentiate itself from digital and traditional competitors and establish a narrative that would resonate with a new generation of MBA candidates.
Drawing on their extensive high-calibre Alumni, AGSM launched a next-generation evolution of their established ‘Made for’ campaign, developed in 2013 with The Garden Agency.
“This new generation of leaders is motivated by stories that resonate with their ambitions — so we wanted to create a customer-centric AGSM brand experience, drawing on the existing equity of our previous Made For campaigns,” said Alison Brown, Head of Brand and Communications at AGSM @ UNSW Business School.
This action-orientated brand campaign captured an extraordinary mix of ‘Makers’ creating an impact in their chosen field.
It speaks directly to AGSM’s customers to activate the core motivations of MBA candidates, post-graduate business school students and lifelong learners. The reputational value and enhanced employability of a world-class MBA is in high demand, as is real-world experience that can be immediately applied. An urgency to be better equipped for an uncertain, rapidly changing world underpinned by digital disruption.
“We needed an assertive call to action to underscore our purpose — to equip a new generation of leaders to make an impact in today’s accelerated world,” says Brown.
Through the ‘Maker’ brand campaign AGSM established what a contemporary leader looks like, sounds like, and acts like, and this was infused into every part of the AGSM customer journey.
“We wanted to capture the talent in their habitats, be it an agritech business, a neobank, an innovation dojo or Google,” says Metaxiotis. “This contextualised story bolsters the brand’s real-time impact whilst creating a direct link to how an MBA at AGSM positions leader to make a positive impact on the world.”
Since launch at the beginning of 2018, the new positioning and narrative has yielded exceptional results. The AGSM brand is considered progressive and contemporary in the rapidly evolving management education sector attracting an increased number of high-calibre and diverse candidates.
“This renewed energy and established purpose has created a meaningful connection for current students, alumni and staff,” says Brown.
“We’ve partnered with AGSM for over seven years now and seen them through two exciting and effective brand evolutions,” says Metaxiotis. “Having this longstanding relationship means we have the opportunity to create true value through our connection to its people and purpose. We’re thrilled this great partnership has been recognised with an AMI award.”
Credits:
Brand strategy, creative and production: The Garden Agency
Photography: James Green (represented by Still Rep)
Video: George Tyler (Series 2), Ketchup Partners (Series 1)
Digital Agency: Bench
Media Agency: Publishers International
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