When TAFE Western Sydney University wanted to challenge popular misconceptions about the institution as a second choice for further education, it turned to News Corp Australia. Together, we teamed up with actor, writer, and stand-up comedian Rob Shehadie to create fully integrated digital and print campaigns to highlight the benefits of a TAFE education.

The initiative, called Rob’s Campaign, launched with full-page executions of 17 inserts in eight newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph, as well as local newspapers such as the Parramatta Advertiser and the Liverpool Leader. This print campaign reached 2.1 million people, with a frequency of 2.6 times.

In the digital realm, we created a four-part video series, in which Rob hit the streets of Western Sydney to separate “Fact from Falafel” in a mock election campaign trail. His mock political promotion debated the benefits of TAFE and university education, encouraging future students to achieve their higher education goals by choosing to study at the TAFE Western Sydney Institute.

By connecting with TAFE’s target audience — high school graduates and their parents — through print and digital executions, News Corp Australia distributed and amplified Rob’s Campaign videos through rich-media video display advertising on desktop and mobile; leveraged branded content on The Daily Telegraph; and utilised The Daily Telegraph’s massive one-million-plus Facebook fans.

High-impact, video-rich display advertising on The Daily Telegraph and the wider News Corp Australia digital network bolstered the print execution, delivering 1,557,120 impressions with an impressive click-through rate of 0.29%.

News Corp Australia’s video advertising technology platform, Unruly, ensured that awareness of all four videos in Rob’s Campaign series were seen by men and women aged 14-24 in New South Wales. Unruly delivered with 192,560 total views across in-target platforms such as Moshtix, Eventfinda, and Ticketek. The campaign achieved 10,667 click-throughs and an outstanding CTR 5.54%.

We used social media to amplify elements of Rob’s Campaign, through eight posts on The Daily Telegraph Facebook page. This reached 196,430 fans, whilst generating 36,061 unique video views and 849 reactions, comments, and/or shares.

Our online audience could also follow the video series in multiple branded articles, which were updated weekly as new videos rolled out for Rob’s Campaign. This allowed readers to watch the whole series in one place at the end of the campaign. 

The success of this project was stated by Craig McCallum, director strategic marketing and media at TAFE Western Sydney: “Partnering with News Corp Australia exposed the campaign beyond our traditional demographic, and the campaign increased engagement with the TAFE Western Sydney brand by 220%, based on the same time last year.”

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