Audience intelligence and live application data refined UNE’s approach to student recruitment, honouring learners’ unconventional life journeys

The University of New England (UNE), in partnership with dentsu, have debuted their new brand platform in Australia, with students and alumni front and centre with ‘From U to Next’, a brand platform that reflects UNE’s rich heritage as a pioneer in unconventional learning.

This is UNE’s first fully integrated campaign delivered under their expanded marketing partnership with dentsu. Having held the media strategy and buying component for over 15 years, Tag has now become the primary partner for creative, social and production, while Dentsu Creative Public Relations (DCPR) is on board for earned media, and Dentsu Digital (DDO) for digital experience under one connected client team. 

The evolved brand narrative was crafted using a combination of audience intelligence and real application data, which uncovered a key insight: today's students don't fit traditional categories. Instead, they are increasingly defined by diverse life circumstances, ambitions and pathways to education.

The brand platform soft-launched in February 2026 across digital and audio platforms, however, is now fully realised, with a through-the-line campaign that celebrates UNE as a university built for learners whose paths don't always follow traditional journeys. It is led by a long-form hero creative alongside, with over 10 different stories to launch, showcasing journeys spanning farming, defence, healthcare, parenthood and career reinvention.

UNE Director of Marketing, Michaela Lobb, said the campaign captures what has long made UNE distinctive. "My challenge to dentsu was to think, 'If people knew it was possible, would we have more people educated, retrained or learning in different ways?' From U to Next was created to celebrate the idea that education can fit around your life, rather than requiring your life to fit around education.

“Education Without Convention is a strategic pillar for UNE that underpins From U to Next, challenging traditional student archetypes and assumptions about where education can lead. By combining audience intelligence, application data and real student stories, we’re building a platform for growth that strengthens brand preference, drives enrolments and challenges the sector to think bigger about who university is for.”

Built as a full-funnel growth platform, the campaign balances broad-reach brand activity with targeted communications across key recruitment periods and audiences, including school leavers, lifelong learners, regional communities and online-first prospective students.

Using dentsu's Consumer Connection System (CCS) audience intelligence alongside UNE application data, the team identified growth markets, understood where demand was emerging, and validated how prospective students engage with education today. The analysis revealed a common thread: while UNE students are remarkably diverse in geography, age and circumstance, they share a desire for flexible education pathways that fit around real life.

The campaign is running nationally across video, social, audio, out-of-home, digital and content channels, using adaptive creative formats to reach prospective students wherever they are in their education journey.

Dentsu Client Partner Joe Gannon said the data- and learning-led approach gave the dentsu team permission to think differently.

“By combining audience intelligence with UNE’s application data, we uncovered a powerful truth: there is no such thing as a typical UNE student. We saw people beginning their education journeys from vastly different starting points, life stages and circumstances. The insight that ‘we all start somewhere’ became an organising idea for the campaign, giving strategy, media, creative, digital and earned teams a common lens through which to tell those stories and bring UNE’s unconventional approach to education to life.”

Unconventional storytelling

Featuring current students and alums, the campaign showcases journeys spanning farming, defence, healthcare, elite sport, parenthood and career reinvention, reinforcing UNE's position as a university built for learners whose paths don't follow traditional expectations.

At the heart of the campaign is taking unconventional pathways, where a creative device inspired by aerial road maps and designed to visualise the unique routes people take towards education and their ambitions beyond it. Rather than presenting a single student archetype, the work celebrates the reality that no two journeys are the same.

Featured stories include Jennifer, who completed a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honors, whilst serving in the Navy and has since become an internationally recognised national security advisor; Ethan, who went from his family's cotton farm in regional New South Wales to becoming a zoologist, artist and local politician; and Tobi, a Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine whose ambition is to work with Doctors Without Borders.

To bring these stories to life, Tag’s production team, with UNE travelled across Australia to capture participants in the environments that have shaped their lives and learning journeys, from regional properties and medical settings to workplaces, campuses and military contexts. Rather than recreating experiences, the films were designed to immerse audiences in the realities of each student's world.

The result is a body of work that blends documentary authenticity with cinematic storytelling. Rich sound design, original composition, and portrait-led imagery captured the texture, ambition, and individuality of each learner's journey, creating a campaign that feels both elevated and unmistakably human.

Client Service Director at TAG, Claire Hoyles, said the campaign was designed to move beyond traditional university advertising and focus on UNE students' lived experiences.

“With From U to Next, we wanted to move beyond the traditional portrayal of university students and create something grounded in lived experience. Capturing each person in the places that have shaped them allowed us to honour the truth of their journey. At the same time, documentary realism, sound and cinematic imagery created a distinctive world that feels hopeful, human and uniquely UNE.”

From an earned media perspective, the campaign is supported by a DigiPR survey and content program exploring Australians' attitudes towards higher education and unconventional learning pathways.

Watch the campaign video here.

CREDITS  

Client: University of New England

Director of Marketing: Michaela Lobb

Integrated Agency: dentsu

Creative & Production Agency: Tag

Head of Creative: Adam Ibrahim

Client Service Director: Claire Hoyles

Media Agency: Dentsu Media

Client Partner, Media: Joe Gannon

Public Relations Agency: Dentsu Creative PR (DCPR)

Group Business Director, PR: Carolina Fullen

Account Director: Jordana King

Post: ARC edit