Leeds Beckett University

Defining Moments

How we helped Leeds Beckett University (LBU) to create a compelling and memorable student proposition that exceeded expectations and was recognised as best-in-class in the industry awards.

Brief

LBU asked Waterfall and Future Index to help them develop a brand narrative and student proposition that would make them stand out from the crowd.

We looked at the bigger brand story and collaboratively developed the core undergraduate proposition – ‘Powering your success together to give you a future advantage’.

We then brought the proposition to life with the inspiring concept – ‘Defining Moments’. A campaign that put their current students front and centre, as they talked about those stand-out moments from their student experience that gave them a future advantage. Authentic storytelling was key. Instead of sweeping generalist statements, a diverse range of students celebrated and shared those emotive and personal university experiences that were most meaningful to them in their own words. These moments covered a variety of themes from settling in and university support to course highlights and getting stuck into work placements.

We developed a look and feel for Defining Moments that we shared with the internal marketing team to use for the campaign. They did an amazing job of sourcing brilliant students and creating inspiring videos, Instagram Stories and audio clips. They also brought the campaign to life through a wide range of inspiring campaign content, including digital ads, socials, their UCAS stand, website content, emails and student profiles in the undergraduate prospectus.

The Defining Moments concept successfully connected and engaged with potential students. It stood out from the blogs, vlogs, podcasts and day-in-the-life videos that had gone before.

The campaign delivered over 10 million impressions and helped generate over 4,800 enrolments for 2023 and 25,000+ applications for 2024. It showed current and future students how much LBU valued them. It also supported increased academic strength, raising the University’s minimum entry floor of applicants who enrolled. We’re very proud that these meaningful moments also engaged with award judges.