RMIT UNIVERSITY: REDBACKS CAMPAIGN

RMIT University is the home of the Redbacks. The Redbacks is the school mascot and sporting teams. In 2019, a strategic decision was made to build a Redbacks Community allowing all students and staff to be a part of whether they were an athlete or not. This was modeled off the school spirit found in American colleges.

Campaign Background:

In Semester 2, the RMIT Campus Store released a range of Redbacks merchandise supporting the vision of a Redbacks community. Around the same time, RMIT was sending their Division 1 sporting teams to compete in UniSport Nationals which was held at the Gold Coast. In order to amplify this and bring awareness to the Redbacks brand, I proposed hosting a Redbacks Launch Party where students and staff could attend an evening in the store to shop the merchandise, support the Nationals team, and feel connected as the Redbacks Community.

Campaign Objective:

The objective was to increase brand awareness of the Redbacks, create a sense of community amongst students and staff, and highlight and increase sales of the Redbacks merchandise.

Campaign Delivery:

There were three main elements to the delivery of this campaign: product marketing material, visual merchandising, and the launch party itself. I worked across all three elements to ensure consistent branding amongst the entire campaign. I photographed the product and campaign images and created the Varsity Jacket and Ice Hockey Jersey graphics for the website. The visual merchandising window was a collaboration between myself and the in-house designer. We created mock-ups of the concept and implemented this as a team. The launch party was led and delivered by myself with assistance from a team working under my direction. The event featured a DJ, pizza, drinks, multiple prizes, the Redbacks mascot, an MC, a live illustrator, goodie bags for the first 50 attendees, and a 20% discount off all Redbacks merchandise. I put together the proposal, booked and managed all the event requirements, created the graphics and promotional material, and ran the marketing of the event. This event was promoted through digital screens and posters around Campus, social media posts, and through EDMs.

Results:

181 students/staff attended the launch with many lining up to enter before the doors opened. Considering the late time in the Semester and lack of Redbacks brand awareness, this was an exceptional number. Some sales were made on the night, however, there was an increase in Redbacks merchandise sales the weeks that followed. Overall, the campaign achieved its objectives and received positive reception to these type of events running at the Campus Store.

Campaign/Product images and graphics by me.

Event images by Jeremy Nguyen. Event video by Tope Adesina.