A founder-led case study from Deakin's Effie-nominated campaign, led by Flowing Bee's Founder and CCO while Director, Brand and Marketing at Deakin.
The business challenge
Deakin University needed to win more school leavers in a student market that was shrinking and becoming more competitive.
VTAC applications had fallen by 6% over four years, while Deakin faced strong competition from prestige-led Go8 universities with advantages in legacy, rankings and reputation.
The university had a compelling offer. It had achieved ten consecutive years as Victoria's most-satisfied students, delivered strong graduate employment outcomes, and built a credible reputation for practical, real-world learning.
Yet these strengths were not translating into choice. Deakin was losing ground with school leavers. Its previous campaign had underperformed, Open Day attendance had fallen by 3,000 visitors year-on-year, and gains in consideration and first preferences had been lost.
The opportunity was to find the psychological lever that would turn Deakin's existing strengths into stronger preference, clearer action and more efficient growth.
The behavioural insight
The existing strategy centred on Deakin's rational strengths: practical learning, real-world outcomes and employability. These were credible proof points, but they needed a stronger emotional mechanism.
A behavioural lens showed how school leavers were using university choice to imagine the person they wanted to become: capable, confident, independent and proud of what they had earned.
Achievement Pride emerged as the key emotional driver - the pride people feel when success reflects their own effort, growth and capability.
Achievement Pride gave Deakin a more powerful way to make practical learning matter. It turned a functional proof point into an identity-based reason to choose.
The strategic unlock was to connect Deakin's practical, progressive offer to this deeper emotional driver, then express it in a way that felt earned, distinctive and culturally relevant in a category crowded with rational messages about the future.
The strategy
The behavioural insight shaped a single strategic platform: The World Won't Be Ready For You.
The campaign positioned Deakin as the university that helps students move ahead of the future. This gave Deakin's practical, progressive offer a sharper emotional role, connecting real-world learning to the confident future self school leavers wanted to imagine.
Every creative decision was designed to activate Achievement Pride. Real Deakin students were cast to create identification and social proof. Their expressions, posture and attitude were directed to signal authentic pride: the slight smile, confidence and self-possession of someone who has earned their progress.
The campaign broke deliberately from the category playbook. It borrowed the visual language of youth brands and the social-first formats school leavers were already drawn to, creating a brand world with more energy, confidence and cultural relevance than conventional university advertising.
This pushed Deakin into an unconventional position that was distinctive enough to cut through and credible enough to feel like a serious higher education choice.
The same behavioural idea was activated across the psychological journey of Year 12, from future planning and Open Day consideration through to preference decisions.
The outcomes
The results were remarkable. From every lens, from every angle we could see uplift – from channel performance, event attendance, preference right through to the commercial outcome, market share. - Jess McCartney, CCO, Flowing Bee (Director, Brand and Marketing at Deakin at the time of this work)
With 39% less media spend, the campaign delivered an estimated 428% ROI. Deakin climbed to 2nd in VTAC first preferences, ahead of the University of Melbourne and RMIT.
Deakin recovered to 16.5% market share and was one of only two universities to gain market share year-on-year, reinforcing the strength of the result in a contracting market.
Intention to apply rose to 43%, up from a 28% benchmark.
Open Day visits increased by 6.12%, reversing the previous year's decline.
Brand association with "a university I am / will be proud to have gotten into" increased by 9%, while association with "known for practical and applied, real-world approach" increased by 22%.
The work shows how brand proof points can become behavioural cues that unlock growth. Flowing Bee helps brands identify these levers and translate them into strategy, messaging, creative direction and execution.
