When it came to Monash University’s 2019 recruitment campaign we were faced with a huge challenge: how do we get graduating high school students to apply to Monash when they were being bombarded by messages from other universities?

While other universities were chasing quotas of enrolments, Monash University needed to recruit young people who shared our philosophy of making positive change.

Our solution was to bring a future of inaction to life for people to experience today – in all its dystopian and provocative glory. We introduced students to A FUTURE WITHOUT CHANGE: a glimpse into what our world could become if we merely adapt to the issues we face instead of changing them.

With the help of each faculty, we created 17 products that shouldn’t exist – each based on a real problem that Monash researchers are working to solve, as well as courses students can study to help make change.

Digital OOH, online films and social posts featuring our products drove students to our activation events, one held at our campus and another at Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne. Here they experienced the physical products in custom-built environments and further interacted with them through an immersive VR experience.

A FUTURE WITHOUT CHANGE as an experience was designed around a world that should not exist. And to convey this world our exhibition space was broken down into several zones: external environment, health, technology, culture and the internal environment. Each zone was brought to life to be interactive and tactile in unique ways.

To design this rich experience we worked with a team of prop builders, developers, food stylists, actors and audio visual technicians. Each product or service went through a design process that ensured there was both comprehension of the issue at heart as well as aesthetic interest – be that sights, sound, smell, taste or touch.

Once inside the space was brought to life through apps on touch screens, smart mirrors, audio visual experiences, bland futuristic food, and medical simulations as well as VR that transported the user to 10 different futuristic scenarios based off of the experience.

By showing a future that shouldn’t exist, we helped recruit and inspire the next generation to change it.

• Over 12,000 people engaged across two activations.

• We reached a concentrated target audience of 95K through social videos and posts.

• Preliminary results from our Open Day activation showed that 24.6% of student visitors registered to a faculty.

• This resulted in our most successful recruitment campaign ever, making Monash the No.1 Preference University in the country.

Over and above all the KPIs and numbers, Monash was able to continue to draw that line in the sand between what they stood for, and what the safe territory the rest of the category was playing in. A FUTURE WITHOUT CHANGE made it clear that Monash isn’t looking for students, they’re rallying people who share their passion for changing the world for the better.