Beyond The Brief: How ECU and Rare broke the mould to ‘Go Further’
In this edition of Beyond the Brief, Rare Group Business Director Christos Cardovillis, Director of Strategy Tim Woodsmith, creative duo Rob Mead and Simon Mullins and Project Director Steve Back break down the thinking behind ECU’s new brand platform ‘Go Further’.
CBWA: Starting at the beginning, what was the brief from Edith Cowan University, and how did it shape your approach to bringing ‘Go Further’ to life?
Tim Woodsmith: As with most strong client-agency partnerships, this wasn’t a standard one-way brief. With the opening of ECU City and a major evolution of their academic offering on the horizon, we thought it was the ideal time to review how the university positions itself. Historically, ECU had been seen through the narrow lens of a few core disciplines. We wanted to break free from those perceptions and reset how ECU presents itself, with a long-term platform that reflected the full scale of their ambition and championed the unstoppable mindset of their people. That’s what shaped Go Further.
CBWA: ‘Go Further’ shifts the emphasis from future possibilities to action in the present. Why was that distinction so important for ECU specifically?
Christos Cardovillis: Across the world, higher education marketing is flooded with promises about future readiness and far-off possibilities. For ECU, this is misaligned with their culture. Action is in their DNA, going back to their namesake Edith Cowan who stood up for what she believed in to create meaningful change. Grounding ‘Go Further’ in present action honours that legacy and sets our intention for the future.
CBWA: So you wanted to move away from the typical tone of university advertising. What were some of the creative conventions you felt you had to break to make ‘Go Further’ feel distinctive?
Steve Back: We didn’t want to make an ad about a university. We wanted to create something that felt like a moment in somebody’s life. Go Further’ is built on the belief that we’re all unstoppable. Not because things are easy, but because progress comes from having the courage to take that next step, even when the outcome is uncertain.
Rob Mead: Brand-level university advertising typically falls victim to either saying too much, trying to talk to every course on offer, or saying too little, with a bland generalised version of their student experience. This is the safe space that most universities operate in. It can be daunting to break away from the formula, but the team at ECU not only took that leap with us but encouraged us to keep pushing the boundaries.
Simon Mullins: We really wanted to create a campaign that didn’t try to soften the world’s rough edges. Failure and hardships are part of life, so they needed to be part of ‘Go Further’. It wasn’t about selling people the dream; it was about capturing their reality.
CBWA: The film is visually stunning. Can you tell us a bit about what went into crafting each scene?
Mullins: The process was incredibly collaborative. We had written the script and we had a good idea of the narrative arc we wanted to follow, but we also wanted to give the director(s) space to create. VERSUS put together a great treatment and were open to continuing to refine and evolve the scenes with us as the story took shape. Being able to just throw ideas around and see what stuck created a sense of freedom that comes through in the finished piece.
Mead: We wanted the shots to either feel real and observational or be highly stylised, so there was a clear distinction between what was a particular moment in time and what was representative of a feeling or emotion.
Pre-production was pretty meticulous given the scope of the shoot – there were many technically complicated shots to capture across four days and locations stretched from one end of Perth to the other. There was, however, an openness and conscious time allocation for Rare and SUBVERSUS to explore shots once they were in the can. These are some of my favourite moments in the final edit.
CBWA: Why was it important to build the film around Western Australian artists, students and cultural figures?
Cardovillis: At Rare, our purpose is to make brands more human and authenticity is central to making a brand feel human. We cast real ECU students, alumni, local performers, and cultural figures whose personal journeys reflect the unstoppable spirit of the brand.
Mead: This approach was a key aspect that stood out to us in VERSUS’ initial treatment. Featuring talent like acclaimed Yindjibarndi artist and ECU alumna Katie West, Ethan French and musicians Mali Jo$e and Arno Faraji, grounds the film in genuine Western Australian culture. It shows real stories of resilience and creativity rather than manufactured advertising concepts. WAAPA talent are also some of the best in the business, so that helped of course!
CBWA: With ECU lecturer and WAAPA graduate Tim Count composing the score and a live WAAPA choir performing it, the soundtrack became another distinctly ECU element of the campaign. How did that collaboration come together?
Mullins: Tim is a renowned composer, sound engineer and stand-up guy who we’ve had the pleasure of working with many times before. He just so happens to also be a big part of WAAPA. We knew Tim would deliver something beautifully composed and original, and his idea of bringing in a WAAPA choir was a stroke of genius.
Mead: Our brief for the score was quite open. It needed a strong sense of movement and a ‘human’ element, which was achieved through close collaboration with Tim and VERSUS. We’re very happy with the result.
CBWA: Tim, you’ve said previously that the strategy wasn’t about manufacturing a new positioning but unearthing something that was already there. How do you know when you’ve genuinely discovered a brand truth rather than simply found a compelling way to describe it?
Woodsmith: I feel we know when we’ve stumbled upon a genuine brand truth when it triggers an immediate aha moment rather than a debate. It’s when you present it, and the client says, ‘Yep, that’s who we’ve always been’.
A brand truth isn’t manufactured, it’s unearthed. For ECU, the answer was right there in their DNA: an unstoppable, action-oriented mindset where you don’t wait for after graduation to make an impact. That spirit goes back to Edith Cowan and has always lived in the culture. Ironically, while ECU had spent years trying to reposition like everyone else, this immediate, real-world action is what every other uni is now trying to claim. We didn’t need to invent something new; we just took ECU back to what they’ve always owned. That’s when you know you have a real solid brand truth.
CBWA: Breaking industry conventions and adopting a bold brand repositioning requires significant brave client decision-making. What role did Rare play in supporting the ECU marketing team to take such a leap of faith?
Cardovillis: A project of this scale only succeeds when there is total trust between agency and client. Over the years, we have developed a solid working relationship with ECU’s marketing team, led by Chief Growth Officer Jo Draper. The relationship is built on the premise that we aren’t a passive supplier but a strategic partner who has a deep understanding of their business.
At the same time, absolute clarity and agreement on the project ambitions allowed us to have a north star to aim for. The ambition to avoid creating yet another university ad campaign and ensure the campaign made people think differently about the university was our barometer for every decision. Approaching the project as a unified team and having honest conversations was key to making this project a success. In the end, we felt the decisions weren’t brave but simply smart!
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