Title	THE UNIVERSITY OF GHENT EXPERIMENT
Brand	GHENT UNIVERSITY (UGENT)
Product/Service	UNIVERSITY
Category	C01. Guerrilla Marketing & Stunts
Entrant	MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation 2	MORTIERBRIGADE DIGITAL MANUFACTURE Ghent, BELGIUM
Media Placement	INITIATIVE MEDIA Hoeilaart, BELGIUM
PR	MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Production	CAVIAR Brussels, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Jens Mortier	mortierbrigade	Creative Director
Joost Berends	mortierbrigade	Creative Director
Philippe De Ceuster	mortierbrigade	Creative Director
Catherine Hermans	mortierbrigade	Copywriter
Laurie Lacourt	mortierbrigade	Art Director
Charlotte Coddens	mortierbrigade	Head of Production
Vincent D'Halluin	mortierbrigade	Strategic Director
Olivia Naudts	mortierbrigade	Producer
Anne-Cécile Collignon	mortierbrigade	PR Manager
Jonas Van Bael	mortierbrigade	Social Media Manager
Laura Deknock	mortierbrigade	Digital Strategic Planner
Sophie Bayeul	mortierbrigade	Head of Studio
Vito Latorrata	mortierbrigade	DTP / Graphic Designer
Jan Opdekamp		Photographer
Tom Willems	Caviar	Director
Shana Duprez	Caviar	Producer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

The UGent Social Experiment was conducted to bring the University’s claim ‘Dare to think’ to live. It wanted to make students, future students and their parents aware of the importance of independent and critical thinking. Instead of creating a brand campaign the experiment was filmed and distributed to all major news channels to create a discussion and make the role of the UGent University more relevant than ever. It showed the role of the university as the most inspirational in Belgium.

Background

Education systems vary from country to country. In Scandinavian and Dutch culture for example, young people are taught to come out for their opinion and question authority. In Belgium with its Catholic tradition, children still learn to obey and study hard, good results are more important than the art of discussion. So for students who are brought up in this culture, it’s not easy to speak out, certainly when they are surrounded by hundreds of other students. This campaign has an important emancipate role for the students. It should trigger them to speak out more easily. And grow to become independent, critical civilians.

Describe the creative idea

UGent (University Gent) is one of the top 50 universities in the world. It’s well known for its pluralistic vision and a firm believe in critical thinking. It’s claim: Dare to think. To find out if this critical thinking is really alive among students, we organized a social experiment. Three renowned professors launched fake and controversial statements in their classes. They challenged students to see if they would react. Out of more than 800 students only 7 reacted. It created a big debate in Belgian media about our education and the way it motivates students to stand out. Most of all, it proved that the claim of the University, ‘Dare to think’, was still very relevant.

Describe the strategy

Every university in Belgium is competing to get the best students of the country. Every year during spring, campaigns are launched to convince you students and their parents to make the right choice. As a university that promotes independent and critical thinking, UGent has to stand out and show that they are different. Since more then 10 years the claim of the university is ‘dare to think’. We are confronted with fake news every day and even scientists are willing to manipulate facts to prove their point. So critical people daring to stand out and let their voice be heard, are valuable. That’s why we decided to bring the reality of fake news and false statements to the class room. Questioning the theory of Darwin or stating the addiction of youth to mobile phones, it were ways to challenge young students and make them.

Describe the execution

During social experiment three renowned professors of the Gent University launched fake and provocative statements in their classes. Well known professor Johan Braeckman stated that the theory of Darwin was not completely correct. Professor Mirjam Knockaert told that students lack the talent of entrepreneurship, while professor Lieven De Marez accused students of being addict to their smartphones. In regular lessons they mixed their classes with these statements, hoping students would react. They literally asked the students to give their opinion. But on a group of more than 800 students, only 7 had the courage to stand out. At the end of the classes, the Dean of the university showed up to congratulate the students. The whole experiment was filmed and put online. In no time all major news channels discussed the subject.

List the results

The campaign got more press coverage, than any other UGent campaign: 79 articles, meaning +280% in 6 days. Almost every Belgian news medium covered the story. Total Advertising value was 428.054 euro. Total PR value: 1.284.163 euro. Total PR impressions: 18Mio (Print: 4.136.800 +Online: 6.234.768 + Tv&Radio: 7.727.682)