Ericsson’s Innovation Awards is a global, university competition, seeking the best ideas that bring about life-changing impact. With such a broad reach and diverse target audience, our brief was to amplify the iconic design equities within the Ericsson brand to support the 2018 theme, ‘The Future of Truth’, to create interest and applicant engagement.

The campaign idea, “The truth is hard to find” was demonstrated through a series of hidden messages. Underpinned by Masterbrand TOV principles and written in the first person, at first glance the messages are the kinds of things we hear every day – a boring message from a bank or a bragging boast on social media. But look again, and the subtle highlighted words tell a much darker story of identity theft, cyber-crime and chat room grooming.

The solution was designed to maximise the impact of the copywriting, reflecting the sense of perverseness and hidden agendas of fake or fraudulent behaviour. A series of striking, typographic statements each with a hidden statement within, subtly highlights the darker story.

Exposed to a multitude of communications daily, our intention was to create a moment of reflection, whilst delivering impact through the messaging and the bold simplicity of the monochrome design system.

The overall success of the competition and the communications around it has achieved an all-time high in registrations, totalling an increase of 59% from 2017 entries. Universities represented increased by 257% and total countries reached grew by 42%. For the first time ever, students opted to be contacted for jobs, generating 1,653 leads. And for the first time ever, employees were invited to register as Ericsson Innovation Awards mentors, resulting in 2.5x more engaged employees.