UCAS Discovery Events

How we helped UCAS to relaunch their live events after lockdown and developed the exciting new UCAS/Discovery brand and offer for their UK tours in 2022 and 2023.

Brief

Thousands of students travel to UCAS events across the country every year. Here, they can connect with lots of different universities and employers, listen to talks, get advice and explore their future choices, so they can make the right one for them. Working closely with UCAS, we aimed to create a vibrant and exciting new brand to welcome students in 2022 and encourage even more meaningful conversations in 2023.

Solution

Over the last two years, we’ve worked closely with the event and marketing teams at UCAS to reimagine UCAS/Discovery and the way it’s marketed.

We built up the excitement by introducing colourful arches, welcome pods and digital screens at the entrance. We provided a warm welcome and put students at ease with welcome talks and a Get Started Here area. We improved the user-journey through colourful signposting, hanging cubes, a new look map and digital signs. We created distinct zones including the new Chill & Charge and Apprenticeship areas. We marketed the events through videos, emails and social posts. And in 2023 we introduced The Big Q&A and Mission Cards to encourage students to talk to universities and employers to find the answers to their questions.

Results

The relaunch of UCAS face-to-face events over the last couple of years has attracted record student numbers (160,000+ in 2022) and the highest ever exhibitor satisfaction scores.

“We’ve worked with the Waterfall team for 18 months to create an engaging brand strategy, visual identity and content for our virtual and in-person UCAS/Discovery event series. Waterfall have been a true partner and delivered stand-out creative solutions to help us achieve our objectives. The team are agile, responsive and always go the extra mile, plus they’re a pleasure to work with!”

– Aimee Okafor, Head of Events, UCAS