Every October, RMIT University and forty-two other Australian universities compete for the attention of teenagers studying for their final high school exams.

RMIT is a university grounded in technology, design and innovation. Based in Melbourne, but with a global footprint of extended campuses, RMIT needed to reinforce its brand credentials as a cutting-edge university to an increasingly globally-minded audience of prospective students. But with seemingly little differentiation between university offerings, how could RMIT stay top-of-mind and reinforce the reasons to study there?

Our task was to develop a campaign that would reach school leavers at the very time they were making the decisions about their choice of university – during the revision window before their final year exams.

Our solution would be judged both on brand metrics (reach of branded communications) and engagement metrics (brand interactions and lead generation).

Rather than using traditional advertising which distracts students from their study, we found a way to actually help them. We created Sans Forgetica: the world’s first typeface specifically designed and proven to help you remember more.

While investigating ideas for study hacks, we discovered previous research into the concept of cognitive disfluency: the principle whereby creating small obstructions to learning results in deeper cognitive processing, and subsequently better memory traces are created.

This provided the inspiration for our idea: to use the skills and resources within the university to create an innovation that tangibly demonstrated what studying at RMIT is all about, and solved a real problem for our audience.

Working with design and psychology academics from RMIT, we designed, refined and tested the font; then gave it away to students studying for their exams. The ultimate study hack delivered just when students needed it.

Our primary audience was final-year high school students and their parents (as key influencers to student university choices). The secondary audience was potential international students.

While the idea was developed in response to a particular need for our primary audience, we knew that the core thought of being able to remember more of what you read would have much broader interest. Key messaging for youth media focused on Sans Forgetica being ‘the ultimate study hack’, while for mainstream media we led with messages around ‘boosting memory’ and ‘remember what you read’. The font being a genuine world-first innovation that has been proven in laboratory testing provided powerful validation.

We targeted general news, technology, design, psychology, education and youth media in both the local Australian and global markets. The agency used film and still assets, interviews with academics, and the font itself, to capture the imagination of the media.

The font was launched in October 2018 as a free download for Mac or PC, and a Chrome browser extension. The heart of the campaign was the website, where people could learn about and download the font and sign up to receive more study hacks and advice over the exam period. All Communications were directed to this hub:

- PR: targeting general news, technology, design, psychology, education and youth media in both local Australian and global markets.

- Search: developed by reviewing all subjects and study texts for the upcoming exams and building a keyword strategy that targeted people searching for study notes relating to those very texts.

- Social: targeting students in their ‘downtime’ when taking a break from study.

- DM: school outreach strategy, where hard copy ‘font books’ were sent to school principals and career advisors, putting them in the hands of those who can influence many.

Sans Forgetica has proven to be a groundbreaking success for RMIT from both a brand and acquisition perspective. By finding a way to be more useful, we delivered a truly memorable result:

Reach

• 700 million earned media impressions

• $7 million earned media value

• 27 million social impressions

• Coverage in 53 countries

Engagement

• 250,000 font downloads (1,111% of target)

• 36,000 Chrome extension users (480% of target)

Response

• 87,088 leads generated (1,935% of target)

• Cost per lead $1.49 (benchmark CPL $58.50)

While the results far surpassed client expectations, the project has also delivered in other ways. RMIT are in discussions with international academics who are eager to study potential clinical applications of Sans Forgetica (such as the treatment of Alzheimer’s and dyslexia), and are now studying whether Sans Forgetica could be adapted to alphabets such as Mandarin, giving the idea potential global applications.