On 2nd October 2023, Edge Hill University had been on their Ormskirk Campus for 90 years. In that time, they’ve never let the beautifully landscaped grass grow under their feet. They’ve inspired minds, introduced outstanding facilities and changed the futures of thousands of people.
This key milestone was definitely an opportunity to celebrate and to communicate all the great achievements of the University and everyone associated with the campus, in that time. It was also an opportunity to demonstrate the scale, depth, reach and impact of the University, as well as a chance to impress and surprise.
The Insight
The campaign had two primary objectives: To enhance Edge Hill’s reputation by sharing positive messages about its achievements; To change perceptions by showcasing the breadth of knowledge and opportunities created at the University.
To showcase this breadth, 10 key topics were chosen and 90 pieces of content written, each consisting of 90 words. The main topics covered were: Students, Staff, Research, Awards, Buildings, Alumni, Honorary Graduates, Degrees, Partnerships and Environment. With each topic communicated to a wide reaching audience, via multiple channels, throughout the anniversary year.
The Idea
We wanted to avoid the formulaic anniversary identities that contained the usual ribbons or script style typography. Edge Hill is known as ‘A Modern University’, so we created a campaign identity more befitting for their status, which featured a nice little feature of a ’90’ within the two key dates.
Building on the number feature, we then created a series of visually colourful 90’s that illustrated a number of key topics and subjects the campaign was going to cover, from celebrating famous Alumni to appreciating the amazing biodiversity on campus.
As part of the creative outputs, two key items had to be considered. The first piece was special edition magazine which needed to include every aspect of the year long celebration. The second piece was a timeline feature which appears on campus in key locations. We titled both these items as ‘NINETIETH’, which conveniently had 9 letters, one for each of the 9 decades – 1933 through to 2023.
The Delivery
The whole campus has been dressed up with a variety of flags, banners, posters, timeline vinyls and digital screens. We produced a series of animations which are being rolled out online, across social media and on campus. The ‘NINETIETH’ magazine, along with an annual review we produced, was mailed out to everyone associated with the University. We also created a campaign toolkit so that the Edge Hill marketing team could create promotional assets for any key events over the year long celebration.
