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).

Our budget was $130,000AUD including media.

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.

We brought together RMIT academics from the fields of design and psychology to work with the agency to design, refine and test the font; then gave it away to students studying for their exams as a download or Chrome browser extension. The ultimate study hack delivered just when students needed it.

Sans Forgetica is a product of design that challenges the core principles of design. By adding two specific disruptions to normal typeface design principles (a backslant and gapping within letters), we achieved ‘desirable difficulty’, where just enough cognitive disfluency is created to leave a better memory trace.

The font was launched in October 2018 as a free download for Mac or PC, as well as a Chrome browser extension. The heart of the campaign was the website, where people could learn about the font and its development, download the font or Chrome extension, sign up to receive more study hacks and advice over the exam period, or test the font for themselves with an interactive function that allowed them to save study notes.

PR was the principle communications channel, supported by a light spend on search, social media, and a school outreach programme targeting school principals and careers advisers.

Sans Forgetica has captured imaginations both locally and globally, and has proven to be a groundbreaking success from both a brand and acquisition perspective. While data for university applications cannot be shared due to client confidentiality, all lead indicators show that by finding a way to be more useful, Sans Forgetica is delivering a truly memorable result.

Brand reach

• 700 million earned media impressions

• $7 million earned media value

• 27 million social impressions

Brand engagement

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

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

Direct response

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

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

With the font created as a free download with no licence restrictions on sharing (for non-commercial purposes), the true reach of the font itself is likely to be significantly larger than the results here indicate.