The Open University – the UK’s largest, and only four nation, university, and pioneer of supported distance learning – has unveiled a major new brand campaign and visual identity as it seeks to reinforce its heritage and relevance in the 21st century.
Dubbed “The Future is Open”, the activity has been devised by a trio of Havas agencies, Havas London, Havas CX Helia and Havas Media UK, in addition to 23red.
The OU was founded in 1969 with the ambition to make learning accessible to anyone, anywhere and it remains the only UK university that is open access to all, with no minimum entry requirements.
Since its creation, the OU has helped over 2.2 million people gain qualifications and this new strategy is designed to bring to life the opportunities it represents – high-quality learning experiences and the chance to transform lives through education.
The activity kicks off with an 60″ TV ad, created by Havas London. It opens on an ambitious, astronomy-obsessed young woman, sitting on her bed, surrounded by posters of the solar system.
Looking up from her book, she notices the large moon pinned to her wall is giving off an inviting glow. Intrigued, she breaks through it to reveal a portal – reminiscent of the ‘O’ in the OU’s logo – which transports her through time into her dream career in aerospace engineering.
Other characters, including a busy dad shopping with his daughter, an exhausted office worker, and a young woman working in a coffee shop, follow suit – diving headfirst into their own portals to realise their callings as a healthcare worker, barrister, and broadcast journalist respectively.
The ad is designed to act as a visual metaphor for the possibilities the OU enables – underlining the ability to fit high-quality academic courses from a credible and highly respected university around your life.
It was shot by award-winning director Malik Vitthal through majority woman and minority-owned production company The Corner Shop UK.
Havas Media UK is handling media planning and buying, focusing on channels that generate the biggest emotional response.
The multi-channel campaign launched with a 60-second TV spot in Friday night’s Celebrity Gogglebox and is being supported on linear, BVOD and on connected TV and radio, with regional adaptations that run UK-wide, and bespoke cutdowns running on digital video and social media including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Out-of-home, with regional adaptations, will also run throughout the UK, deploying a range of different formats to balance campaign impact with campaign dwell. All channel budgets have been phased against econometrics data to generate maximum return for the OU.
The OU shield, an integral part of the OU brand identity which enjoys high brand awareness, was a used as a starting point by the Havas team to create a design system. In time, this visual identity will span all touchpoints and audiences, including learning material, event collateral, annual reports, internal documents, and even the certificates awarded by the OU to its graduates.
The campaign will also feature a major programme of student-facing communications from the OU’s in-house CRM and digital teams, with Havas CX Helia supporting on recruitment.
Additional social and PR activation will be undertaken by creative agency 23red, which is revealing the results of an extensive survey on the societal challenges that concern young people across the four nations.
The poll of 4,300 18- to 34-year-olds across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland reveals that young people are most concerned about sustainability (64%), followed by inequality (58%) and health and wellbeing (56%).
The results will be used to directly inform the OU’s research for the next five years. This heralds a different way of doing research by The Open University, which has already consulted extensively with its staff and students, before opening up a priority list to the public to effectively crowdsource the future focus of its societal challenges programme.
OU director of marketing and communications Ceri Rose said: “Our mission is to be open to people, places, methods and ideas – and this has never been more true of our desire to help people achieve their full potential.
“In a fast-changing landscape, it’s vital that we maintain our leading position – not just in the education sector through our world-class research, teaching and skills, but as a social movement for change. Being open is in our DNA – and that’s exactly what this bold, eye-catching campaign aims to capture.”
Havas London chief creative officer Vicki Maguire added: “I have a huge amount of love for the OU, and I’m not the only one. This campaign brings that to life across every touchpoint. More than half a century since it burst onto the scene, the OU has never been more relevant – and we needed to reflect that. I’m proud to have been involved.”
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