Campaigns & Creativity

The contribution that universities make to our collective understanding is huge. But do their insights impact the audiences with the most to gain? Our job is to resolve the communications disconnect and help our academics and university leaders get their stories out there.

To enthuse, excite and build full-on engagement, we devise and deliver:

  • Compelling, integrated, reputation-driving multimedia campaigns.
  • Brand partnerships.
  • Ongoing profile-raising programmes.
  • Programme, project and product launches.
  • Expert promotional plans to support academics with external engagement and partnership funding.
“Justin made the time to understand our organisation, our members and how to maximise our position. He’s passionate about the work our members do. He brings insight and ideas from his experience across the sector. And he’s really effective at turning ideas into action.”
Beth Button, Head of Communications and Public Affairs, University Alliance

The issue

We know that the proportion of academics engaged with the media has remained stuck for decades at around 10-20%. And when academics do get noticed, they’re often from a particular type of institution, and not representative of the diversity of our academic communities.

The University Alliance wanted to address the underrepresentation of their members in the media, elevate the applied, solution-focused research their academics are contributing, and help generate a more diverse and representative media presence.

This meant understanding the barriers, from the narrower pipeline of media-savvy academics to a disconnect with the right media partners and channels.

How we worked together

We tackled every barrier.

We organised media training for several hundred academics, sharpening their insight into what journalists look for and boosting their confidence. We helped University Alliance identify the themes that highlight its members’ research strengths and craft media plans to pitch more stories to a wider media network. And we involved the support of ExpertFile to create stronger, media-searchable profiles for University Alliance’s members and academics.

The results

University Alliance members do phenomenal work. Hundreds of their academics are now equipped to get the stories behind their practical research out there to many more people. They have created a stronger, collective narrative around the contributions its member institutions make and the real-world impact they have.

Back to top