Title	FUTURE NEWS
Brand	UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
Product/Service	UNIVERSITY
Category	E01. Acquisition & Retention
Entrant	WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Antwerp, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Antwerp, BELGIUM
Media Placement	WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Antwerp, BELGIUM
Media Placement 2	WAVEMAKER Waasmunster, BELGIUM
Production	WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Antwerp, BELGIUM
Production 2	BV PLAYAR Tessenderlo, BELGIUM
Production 3	RABBITHOLE Antwerp, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Pieter Staes	Wunderman Thompson	Creative Director
Manuel Ostyn	Wunderman Thompson	Creative Director
Tomas Van Loon	Creation	Creative
Patrick Vermeylen	Wunderman Thompson	Creative
Matthias Berghmans	Wunderman Thompson	3D designer
Bas Vaerewyck	Wunderman Thompson	3D designer
Kenny Smet	Wunderman Thompson	Designer
Ynje Degaeve	Wunderman Thompson	Designer
Andreas De Ridder	Wunderman Thompson	Motion Design & Editing
Theo Hagtingius	Wunderman Thompson	DTP
Jan-Bart Debruyne	Wunderman Thompson	DTP
Lynn Pinsart	Wunderman Thompson	copywriter
Tine Sinnaeve	Wunderman Thompson	copywriter
Joeri Quinet	Wunderman Thompson	copywriter
Evert Van den Broeck	Wunderman Thompson	Strategy Planner
Dimitri De Lauw	Wunderman Thompson	Strategic Director
Caroline Bogaerts	Wunderman Thompson	Performance Marketer
Basel Alakkad	Wunderman Thompson	Performance marketer
Stephanie Katic	Wunderman Thompson	Account Director
Valérie Rosiers	Wunderman Thompson	Account Manager
Ingeborg Van Hoof	Wunderman Thompson	Agency Producer
Thijs Ter Haar	Wunderman Thompson	UX/ UI Designer
Jesse Debruyckere	Wunderman Thompson	Developer
Arnout Deville	Wunderman Thompson	Chief Thechnology Officer
Bruno Dejonghe	Playar Studio	founder & executive producer
Bram Van Rompaey	RabbitHole Animation	RabbitHole Animation

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

‘Future News’ reached the next generation of students in a way traditional advertising couldn’t. Because this target group has seen everything, we had to find a new way to get their attention and is part of their online culture. By making our campaign look like fake news instead of advertising, we got their attention, but unlike fake news, our campaign had an interesting twist. Because students discovered they could turn this fake news into future news by choosing an innovative university.

Background

UAntwerp is a creative and innovative university. This vision translates in their huge amount of scientific research and in the way they teach their classes. Because they want students to use knowledge as a tool to ‘help shape the future’, which is the university’s baseline. We wanted to bring this baseline to life and show the next generation of students how they actually can have a huge impact on the world of tomorrow.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

UAntwerp published some fake news. Or at least, that’s what it looked like. We wrote triggering headlines that seemed very impossible and spread them just like fake news. But in fact, our news wasn’t fake news, but future news. Every headline was linked to a course at UAntwerp and inspired students to turn it into reality by studying at an innovative university. Later, students could even bring our headlines to life in AR. By scanning interactive billboards, they could unfold the world of tomorrow in front of their own eyes. Once again, inviting them to come and turn this augmented reality into actual reality at UAntwerp.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The next generation of students is very difficult to reach. They get an overload of online information and traditional advertising won’t do the trick. So, we had to grab their attention, but at the same time we wanted to show them UAntwerp isn’t a traditional university, but a place that inspires students to think creatively. So, let’s grab their attention with something that triggers everybody: fake news. Let’s use the same tricks, the same style of headlines and spread it the same way like ‘real’ fake news, before unveiling it’s actually future news that young people can turn into reality.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Fake news is everywhere. So, we spread our headlines just like fake news. We aired it like real news and published it online and on social. Every headline was linked to a university course. For instance; the headline ‘New beer makes teeth brighter’ invited people to study product development at UA, while the headline ‘Belgium recognizes android marriage’ invited them to come and get their law degree. Every headline inspired students to turn this fake news into future news. Then, to invite students to our e-info day, we put our headlines on billboards on the best spots around campus. People could scan the billboards and bring the headlines to life in AR, showing what the world of tomorrow could look like. Then, we invited students to our e-info day. Once again, inspiring them to come and turn this augmented reality into actual reality at UAntwerp.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign got more than 8,5 million media impressions, reaching over 3.5 million people, of which 15% was organic. The campaign got PR coverage in Belgium’s most important newspapers and perception of the university as being innovative grew with 8%. During the campaign, online searches for UAntwerp increased with 111%. All resulting in 19% more leads to the e-info day and 12,5% more university entries compared to the previous year.