The Department of Training and Workforce Development briefed Rare on a number of key objectives around changing the perception of TAFE among prospective students, in order to increase student recruitment. Market research included in the Department’s brief identified three key perception challenges associated with TAFE, as outlined below:
Only by shifting these perceptions could Rare broaden the market size for TAFE – amongst both high school leavers and, importantly, mature age students considering returning to University or undertaking an undergraduate degree.
By way of our research, we discovered the State Training Providers (STPs), as a collective, offered a huge amount of choice to their students, and a TAFE qualification made them job ready.
People who left TAFE were confident and in charge of their destiny.
We developed the campaign creative platform; TafeChoices, to reflect this choice offered by:
With our call to action in place, we now needed to convince people to take action – to make a change. To choose TAFE.
Our insight here was that we all have an opportunity to make our name in the world. It doesn’t have to be through some earth-shattering discovery or heroic feat. We can make our name simply by being good at what we do every day.
We showed people doing just that. People at work, making their name in their chosen occupation, be it in aviation or agriculture, trades, business or the arts.
We used real TAFE graduates at real locations for the shoot and shot 12 different scenarios. Logistically, to pull this off was a feat in itself given the timeframes, amount of “amateur” talent involved, and number of stakeholders to keep aligned.
We wanted people to believe that by choosing a TAFE course, they are making a statement. Choosing to map their own destiny; they know what they like.
They’re choosing a college and course that will get them directly to where they want to go. This isn’t theory, this is certainty.
The campaign was executed across TV, radio, print and digital supported by the development of the integrated website TafeChoices.com, which was designed and developed by Rare.
Rare was charged with simplifying the way in which prospective TAFE students researched and enrolled in courses online.
This process involved the consolidation of multiple TAFE databases to develop a simple interface that allowing users to search by study area, course name, campus location or desired career, using a simple free- text search bar.
Prior to this, it was extremely difficult for prospective students to find courses due to unique naming conventions for courses that didn’t always align with broad study area categories, nor relate to careers, or because many courses were only available at specific campuses.
The free-text interface empowered users to quickly and easily find the information they needed to enquire or enroll, and was only made possible by way of Rare’s user first approach to customer journey mapping.
To determine the efficacy of the campaign, primary market research was undertaken with two key target audience segments, including influencers (parents of students) and potential students (older students planning to study in near future).
The campaign was extremely successful among these segments, with key results outlined as follows:
High levels of spontaneous campaign recall amongst target audiences
One in four of our primary target audience and one in three of our secondary target recalled the TAFEChoices campaign top-of-mind
Two-thirds of both audiences successfully recalled at least one of the campaign channels
Our TV and digital campaigns achieved high cut-through amongst audiences:
Unique and differentiating messages – the most successful and prominent were the messages around ‘choice’ and that TAFE ‘enables you to make your name / yourself’
Campaign and messages were perceived by the targets as ‘important’, ‘easy to understand’, ‘believable’ and overall ‘worthwhile’
One in four of our primary target audience recalled the TAFEChoices campaign top-of-mind.
Two thirds of our primary audience were more likely to consider recommending to a TAFE and over half of potential students are more likely to consider studying at TAFE themselves as a result of the campaign.
