UCD Professional Academy: Momentum Unleashed

The world of professional short courses is changing. Driven by changes in commercial strategy, consumer habits and government policy, the pivot towards more flexible, engaging online and blended learning experiences is increasingly decisive—and essential.

Against this backdrop are huge opportunities for credible, flexible and globally facing brands to capture attention, sentiment and spend from the modern professional learner.

University College Dublin (UCD) Professional Academy launched into the professional education market to offer short, sharp and impactful courses taught by industry leaders. It sits at a unique intersection between heritage and innovation: backed by a respected institution, providing highly relevant, career-enhancing qualifications.

Following a period of initial success and organic brand growth, a strategic approach was needed to express its competitive advantage and set the stage for the next phase of delivery. Our challenge was to develop the visual and verbal brand expression that would provide this foundation, marrying academic heritage with future-facing, modern delivery.

CLAIMING A SPACE

Extensive qualitative and quantitative research provided core insights: from its excellent reputation to the essential and intrinsic link with the UCD master brand and, importantly, the team’s continuous drive for progress.

Taking into consideration the key requirements of B2B and B2C customer personas, alongside a marketplace and competitor review, it was established that UCD Professional Academy’s unique offer sits at the intersection between heritage and innovation.

THE GOLDEN THREAD

Our solution is to underpin the brand with a golden thread that links UCD’s rich past and the professional academy’s drive and ambition: ‘Momentum unleashed’.

Momentum captures the existing progress upon which it is building, alongside the pace of change delivered to students.

Unleashed speaks to the fresh energy and drive of the team, and the potential they help unlock for B2B and B2C audiences.

We developed a series of compelling targeted messages to guide ongoing communications and campaign work.

SETTING AMBITIONS. FINDING BALANCE.

Building on our strong verbal narrative, we developed the visual expression. The confident new identity celebrates and builds upon the existing brand, creating a flexible toolkit of parts inspired by momentum. 

New course-specific shapes act as a useful guide for the user. Authentic photography captures snippets of reality and demonstrates an understanding of audience. Radiating shapes cement the idea of growth and progressive movement.

We kept the trusted existing logo and well-recognised brand purple and evolved them to a digitally focused brand with flexibility in its application.

The resultant brand has a strong fidelity with the UCD Masterbrand. While recognisably part of UCD, the new visual and verbal expression present UCD Professional Academy as a challenger in its sector, directly speaking to the needs of its professional target market.

BUILDING OUT THE EXPRESSION

We developed a suite of assets in the new brand, including revitalised course brochures, targeted for B2B and B2C audiences, key templates, video ident, branded stationery and social assets. To ensure consistency in application and brand guardianship, we developed a comprehensive set of guidelines to direct ongoing usage and held a company-wide Brand Induction session to bring everyone on the journey.