ANYBODY who thinks Australian education dos not need a national branding campaign to attract overseas students should visit a recruitment fair in Beijing, according to Austrades Quentin Stevenson-Perks.

Individual institutions get lost in the company of competitors and “people look for the Australian brand,” he says.

It’s why he argues education exporters need Austrade’s Future Unlimited national brand and why the agency has launched a new advertisement to anchor the campaign. It’s also a module of the Australia Unlimited brand launched in 2010 to build awareness of Australia as offering more than a great lifestyle. Future Unlimited sells the education system as providing globally recognised quality courses.

 “While we might like to think everybody knows Australian institution’s Jiao Tong rankings they don’t. We are not recognised as we should be for international education and we need it to add to our national brand,” Stevenson-Perks says.

“People looking at investing time and money in education don’t want to come and look at kangaroos. They want a qualification recognised by governments and employers. Future Unlimited is much more than destination marketing.” 

However the campaign is not intended to overwhelm institutions’ marketing efforts. For a start, Stevenson-Perks says, collectively they have much, much more money. Rather it will help leverage their campaigns.”

The campaign includes the new branding video (produced for under $400,000), plus collateral designed for events overseas. Overall Quentin Perks, estimates Austrade’s ex salary campaign costs at under $2 million.

Higher and further education institutions plus overseas agents can use the campaign under licence without charge.

But can branding beat the hard reality of cost as a stronger dollar makes Australia a more expensive sell?

“The dollar has gone from 83 cents (against the $US$ to $1.08 – there is nothing we can do about this. But it does demonstrate a strong economy and it shows students they can get a job while they study,” Stevenson Perks suggest.

A harder sell, perhaps