The marketing team at the University of Limerick in Ireland launched the university’s first large-scale marketing campaign for postgraduate studies with “small budgets, but grand ambitions.” They were rewarded with a 2023 gold Circle of Excellence Award.

A thorough research and discovery process provided a clear theme for the campaign: “Stay Curious.” And under that umbrella, other taglines emerged, most notably “A community for the curious” and “Where will your curiosity take you?”

The cornerstone of the program was the authentic stories of four University of Limerick ambassadors, chosen to represent the diversity of the postgraduate student population and academic and support offerings that were available to them at the university. In billboards, digital and regional radio ads, social media posts, videos, campus banners, and bus shelter ads, these students share life journeys that prospective students can relate to. As they move into a second phase of the campaign, they plan to enlist more student ambassadors, further representing their target personas of postgraduates, which will increase peer-to-peer communication.