Pearson’s university partnerships bring together the reach of a global learning organisation with the academic reputation and expertise of individual institutions. The challenge was to create marketing communications that could reflect each university’s identity while maintaining consistency across a growing portfolio of courses and digital platforms.

Fresh01 worked across more than 11 UK university brand partnerships, supporting over 50 courses and collaborating with more than 23 marketing managers and teams. Each partnership had its own audiences, subject areas and communication requirements, making flexibility and consistency equally important.

The aim was to create a more structured approach to course marketing, helping Pearson and its university partners communicate complex information clearly while retaining the credibility of each institution.

Building a flexible approach

Rather than treating every campaign as a separate project, Fresh01 developed flexible visual identities and structured communication systems that could adapt to different institutions, subjects and audiences.

The work spanned partnerships with Ulster University, the University of London, the University of Leeds, King’s College London, the University of Sussex, and Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, alongside Pearson’s UK Learns platform.

For Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Fresh01 created a detailed visual identity system incorporating typography, colour, iconography, imagery and layout principles. This provided a practical framework for maintaining consistency across course materials, campaigns, social content and website pages.

Bringing courses to life

Each university partnership required a different approach to communicating its courses and audiences.

For King’s College London, Fresh01 created digital advertising and recruitment materials for its online Master’s programmes. The creative needed to combine the authority of the institution with accessible messaging that highlighted the flexibility of online study.

For the University of Sussex, the work included animated campaign content and storyboarding for its online Energy Policy MSc. The resulting communications brought together course benefits, subject relevance and flexible study options in a format suited to digital audiences.

Fresh01 also supported UK Learns, helping shape the presentation of a wider online learning platform through website design, course navigation, supporting imagery and promotional content.

Across these projects, the focus remained on making course information easier to understand and act upon, without losing the academic credibility that learners expect from established institutions.

A system designed to scale

With more than 50 courses to support, the work needed to provide a foundation that could evolve alongside Pearson’s university partnerships.

Modular layouts, clear typography, considered imagery and practical identity guidelines helped different teams produce communications more consistently, without requiring a completely new approach for every course or campaign.

This also supported collaboration between Pearson, university stakeholders and multiple marketing teams. From digital campaigns and recruitment materials to animation, social content and learning environments, the resulting systems created a more cohesive experience across the different ways learners encountered each course.

By combining shared structure with the flexibility to reflect individual institutions, Fresh01 helped Pearson establish a more scalable approach to marketing communications across its higher education partnerships.

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