"The first thing to say is that the campaign materialised as a direct result of student demand. We knew from our course reps, from surveys and from speaking to students that this was the number one problem, and that teaching and support staff are our most valuable resource. So, we knew the issue was important and that students wanted to see action on it, but also that we needed to create a narrative and a reason to get involved that was specific to our creative and unique student body.
From the outset in our campaign planning we wanted to ensure the campaign was visual, exciting and relevant. We spent a lot of time brainstorming and thinking creatively around our theme and branding for the campaign, before settling on our 80s hip hop, MC Hammer themed – Can’t Cut This/Don’t Stop... Contact Time.
We felt that as a theme it was broad, malleable and flexible enough for a number of different platforms - most importantly, though, we hoped it would excite and enthuse the student body. The next stop was putting this into action. Due to the nature of ours being an arts institution we have lots of talented students, many who are part of our Creative Team. We sent out a brief for the branding, and the imagery was designed by a student of ours.
From this we knew we had a visually engaging campaign and some great materials in the form of posters and pledge cards (to build our campaign list); but we were missing something. The idea of making a ‘Can’t Cut This’ mock video had been aired earlier in planning sessions, but the time had come. We involved some our societies and the broader skills of our students in music and film and what did we come up with? A video filmed on pretty much £0 budget that has won awards, had 30,000 plus hits on YouTube and has been featured regularly in the national media. More importantly, though, we created a channel within which to communicate with our students. Students were excited about it, they recognised their peers and their officers, they knew about the campaign and they wanted to support it.
Following on from our video, we have continued to use our students specific skills to engage them with what we have been doing – from dance, to visual arts, to photography, to screen printing, to set design – there has been a place for all of them. We created different teams – Creative, Activism/Organising and Media so that students could get involved in areas that they felt comfortable. We haven’t tried to constrain our students - those that have got involved we have encouraged to go further and do more without trying to hold on to them or be too prescriptive.
This has born new activists, new methods of campaigning and a national arts movement against cuts that has changed the face of how we work, how our students get involved with what we do and what they think of their Students’ Union. But there has been tangible and measurable change – contact time in the UAL medium term strategy, FDA fees frozen and a new acknowledgement from the University that we are a credible voice who must be listened to."
Louis Hartnoll, President, SU Arts
Click here to watch the infamous 'Can't Cut This' campaign video