Unite.

UNITE are the UK's largest private student landlord, housing over 40,000 UK and international students around the country. They offer managed accommodation - shared flats, rooms and studio flats in purpose built buildings designed to give students everything they need within one all-inclusive rental fee.

Rents include all utility bills, contents insurance and broadband internet access. Their properties are in excellent locations, they offer safe and secure student accommodation, with many properties including gyms and social spaces etc. They truly are at the heart of student living.

Our brief was to market their accommodation for 2011-12.

THE IDEA.

Students are a tough audience. Incredibly brand literate, skeptical and hard to reach we knew early on that this would have to be a hard working campaign and that credibility would be key.

We took up the role of lead and creative agency for UNITE's first campaign of the year. Needing to solve a number of communications challenges, while keeping the campaign relevant and interesting, we focused the work on  promoting UNITE as a brand that understands student life and the student experience. Living with friends was a key element identified early on as a lever to success.

Taking on their proposition 'the heart of student living' we put their residents at the heart of the campaign. The work features student images, strong messaging, vivid design, video content following interviews with UNITE tenants all adding up to a package of work that's based on peer-to-peer endorsement.

This was backed up with a promotional discount on a number of locations across the UK.

Getting in front of the students themselves was key, so media planning has focused on seeking out students on campus, in and around current accommodation areas, online in the social space and using street teams on the ground as brand ambassadors.

RESULTS.

In a very tough market and emerging climate, we have created a cross-media campaign that cuts through and connects with a very cynical audience, while still performing incredibly well