The Superior School of International Trade at Pompeu Fabra University (ESCI-UPF) emerged in the midst of the globalization and technological revolution era, training its students in many disciplines that were being created as they were being developed. Without a building or an accredited degree, the first classes were asked to use their own laptop computers and modems, and to study 25% of their courses in English in post-Olympic Barcelona in 1994. Their beginnings were a real struggle against the odds, but this pioneering spirit is at the core of this academic institution’s identity.
In a very different context and having surpassed 25 years of history, ESCI-UPF contacted LITW to create a new identity and global positioning that would represent the university. The goal was to recover the initial momentum and reclaim the students’ sense of belonging to the international studies school.
The new context we were experiencing during the campaign launch, where economic, social, and ecological crises intersected, begged the question of what students will need five or ten years from now.
One of the main requirements quickly identified in our analysis was the need to bolster the university’s identity. This was due to the diversity of studies offered on an urban campus that lacked large common spaces, and schedules that made it difficult for students from different areas of study to fully get to know each other.
After 25 years, we were no longer in the moment when everything is to be done. From then on, one could “belong” to an institution with history and rely on it to “become” an asset to society thanks to a unique formula that blends science, humanities and ethics.
The Belong Become campaign focuses on claiming a color, universal values, and the freshness and agility that only a medium-sized school, located in the heart of a dynamic city like Barcelona, can afford.
Faced with a changing landscape caused by the generational shift between Millennials (Y) and Generation Z, we opted for a multi-level campaign. The aim was to create a vast information structure for segmented audiences, allowing them to obtain what they need from multiple channels. The campaign included ads, a network of landing pages for data capture, an official website containing all the information, interactive informative materials, and social media profiles (especially Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Spotify).
We always considered the visual component and how ESCI-UPF’s study programs respond to the needs of an uncertain present in which innovation plays a key role in the development of future professions within a context of cyclical crises. Therefore, the campaign was designed as a reflection of the immediate future that is about to happen.