Edith Cowan University launches bold new brand platform ‘Go Further’ via Rare

Edith Cowan University has launched Go Further, a new brand platform created by Rare and brought to life by Subversus, celebrating the unstoppable spirit that has defined ECU since its beginnings.

ECU’s new brand positioning captures the University’s enduring spirit of action. Go Further shifts the focus from distant possibilities to the impact people can make now, capturing the ambitions, energy and action that have shaped ECU since its beginnings.

Inspired by the legacy of Edith Cowan, the first woman elected to an Australian parliament, the campaign celebrates the determination to act, challenge convention and create meaningful change. It is a mindset shared by the students, educators, researchers, graduates and changemakers who make up the ECU community.

Jo Draper, ECU Chief Growth Officer explains, “Go Further is more than a campaign. It is a distinctive platform and a mindset that reflects having the courage to move beyond uncertainty, take the next step and make progress. This spirit is at the heart of ECU.”

The new brand positioning marks a pivotal moment for the university, with the transformational new ECU City campus opening its doors in 2026. The building is a physical manifestation of a broader ambition to redefine higher education as we know it and create meaningful change in a changing world.

Tim Woodsmith, Strategy Director at Rare, says “ECU has always provided an incredible space for everyone who enters its doors to make an instant impact. We didn’t need a revolutionary strategy that manufactured a new position. We wanted to unearth what was already there, that feeling of being unstoppable. That same tenacity draws a straight line back to Edith Cowan. This positioning is about dropping the safe category tropes, celebrating immediate action over distant promises, and giving ECU the license to own their true DNA out loud.”

To bring the strategy to life, the creative execution needed to match its scale and ambition. Creation of the hero film was led by Rare in partnership with Australian directing duo VERSUS (Tanya Babić and Jason Sukadana) with production by Subversus. Chosen for their exceptional level of craft and authentic storytelling, the directors brought a level of polish and humanity to the work that subverted the typical institutional tone of the category.

Says Babić and Sukadana: “The incredible Rare and ECU teams brought us into the project early and gave us the space to help shape the visual narrative, which is a huge part of why we built Subversus. We wanted a model that brings greater creativity, cultural perspective and artistic thinking from the outset. That freedom allowed us to push the film somewhere visceral and unexpected, beyond the conventions of the university category, while bringing artists and cultural figures like Katie West, Mali Jo$e and Arno Faraji into the film in a way that felt authentic and integral.”

Filmed across Perth using a local production crew, the TVC brings together current ECU students, ECU alumni, artists, performers and cultural figures who embody the unstoppable spirit at the heart of the platform. Among them are acclaimed Yindjibarndi artist and ECU alumna Katie West, ECU and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) students as talent, including popular TikToker Ethan French, and a number of recognised Western Australian cultural identities whose stories of resilience, creativity and impact reflect the values that define ECU.

The original score was composed by Tim Count, ECU lecturer, WAAPA graduate and award-winning screen composer. Performed by a WAAPA choir, the soundtrack creates a uniquely ECU collaboration, bringing together the university’s creative community both on screen and behind the scenes.

“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,” says Steve Back, Project Creative Director.

“‘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.”

Go Further is now rolling out across TV, VOD, Social and OOH.

Client: Edith Cowan University
Chief Growth Officer: Jo Draper
Associate Director, Brand, Marketing and Growth: Sasha Anderson
Manager, Brand and Marketing: Adelene Davies
Marketing Adviser: Chanel Scott

Agency: Rare:
Director of Strategy: Tim Woodsmith
Project Creative Director: Steve Back
Associate Creative Director: Rob Mead
Copywriter: Simon Mullins
Head of Design: Jim Tuckwell
Title Animation: Kody Mason
Outdoor Animation: Leslie Sharpe (Ooft Studio)
Publication Design: Matt Tomlinson
Group Business Director: Christos Cardovillis
Account Manager: Sarah Maitland
Account Executive: Kate Doherty & Adam Lauren
General Manager, Media: Joe Purdy
Media Planning Director: Ella-Jane Williams
Senior Media Account Manager: Beatriz Daquin
Producer: Evy Donaldson
Head of Production: Brett Wheeler
Freelance Producer: Courtney Rawlings

Production Company: Subversus
Director: VERSUS (Tanya Babić & Jason Sukadana)
Executive Producer: Autumn Loveday
DOP: Tyson Perkins
1st AD: Mark Boskell
Casting: Evy Donaldson
Editor: Sean McDermott
Post Production / VFX: Joshua Regoli
Colourist: Matic Prusnik
Original Composition, Sound Design & Mix: Tim Count

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