The challenge
Together with WSU’s international marketing team, we developed an interactive digital brochure designed to transform recruitment materials into engaging, user-friendly tools.
The foundation of our approach was a series of double-page spreads, each featuring hero images of actual WSU students (no stock photos here!). Interactive popups invite exploration rather than passive reading. It’s a design philosophy that respects students’ intelligence while acknowledging their limited time and attention. With one of eduKUDU’s brochures, it’s so much easier for prospects to take a deeper look at areas that matter to them while skimming or outright skipping others, creating a personalised journey through WSU’s offerings.
Take scholarships, for instance. We know financing education is often a make-or-break factor for international students, but often this critical information ends up buried deep within recruitment materials. We’ve worked on this same problem with other clients, and how we resolve it is based upon each individual client’s needs. For WSU, who preferred to prioritise a single comprehensive brochure rather than a series of snapshots, we gave scholarships and discounts prominence with its own dedicated double page spread.
Authenticity drives decision-making, which is why we placed student voices front and center. The welcome spread features 17 testimonials that include photos, personal stories, and embedded videos from current students and alumni. Social proof carries significantly more weight than institutional messaging. When a prospective student sees someone like themselves thriving at WSU, the university transforms from an abstract concept to a viable personal future.
We’ve also tackled the practical concerns that often become hidden barriers in the application process. International students worry about visas, accommodation, and living costs. Dedicated sections on important information like living costs and visa requirements transform these anxieties into manageable processes with clear pathways and resources.
Throughout the brochure, thoughtfully integrated multimedia elements enhance both information delivery and user experience. WSU provided us with some fantastic high-quality photography of actual students, creating visual authenticity that stock imagery simply cannot match. Strategic videos, including the welcome message and application guides add depth to key decision points in the student journey.
Perhaps most importantly, we designed the brochure as a working piece of a broader digital ecosystem. Strategic links connect to WSU’s website and our student testimonial platform, creating seamless pathways that maintain engagement across multiple touchpoints. Embedded links throughout the brochure transform passing interest into immediate action opportunities, connecting prospects directly to application portals, scholarship details, and support services. This integration prevents the drop-off that typically occurs when prospects navigate between disconnected resources.
From our experience working with universities and education partners, a few key considerations stood out:
First, aim for a Goldilocks level of information: not too much, and not too little. A lot of preparation and paperwork goes into international study, so prospective students need comprehensive details about everything from programs to scholarships to visa requirements. But lumping all of this into one PDF or paper brochure can lead to information fatigue rather than clarity. Too much dense text and not enough clear calls to action means students end up overwhelmed instead of informed, knowing everything there is to know about the visa except for what to actually do next.
Second, mind the authenticity gap. Generic marketing materials rarely capture what students genuinely care about: the real-life experience of studying at a university. When making a life-changing decision about education, students crave authentic peer insights that stock photos and overpolished, impersonal marketing copy can’t deliver.
Finally, keep your user journey as centralised as possible. When recruitment assets exist in isolation – brochures separate from videos separate from testimonials – prospective students drop off between touchpoints instead of progressing toward application.
These challenges presented an opportunity to reimagine how Western Sydney University connects with international prospects. How could we transform their recruitment materials from passive information delivery to active engagement tools?
The solution
Together with WSU’s international marketing team, we developed an interactive digital brochure designed to transform recruitment materials into engaging, user-friendly tools.
The foundation of our approach was a series of double-page spreads, each featuring hero images of actual WSU students (no stock photos here!). Interactive popups invite exploration rather than passive reading. It’s a design philosophy that respects students’ intelligence while acknowledging their limited time and attention. With one of eduKUDU’s brochures, it’s so much easier for prospects to take a deeper look at areas that matter to them while skimming or outright skipping others, creating a personalised journey through WSU’s offerings.
Take scholarships, for instance. We know financing education is often a make-or-break factor for international students, but often this critical information ends up buried deep within recruitment materials. We’ve worked on this same problem with other clients, and how we resolve it is based upon each individual client’s needs. For WSU, who preferred to prioritise a single comprehensive brochure rather than a series of snapshots, we gave scholarships and discounts prominence with its own dedicated double page spread.
Authenticity drives decision-making, which is why we placed student voices front and center. The welcome spread features 17 testimonials that include photos, personal stories, and embedded videos from current students and alumni. Social proof carries significantly more weight than institutional messaging. When a prospective student sees someone like themselves thriving at WSU, the university transforms from an abstract concept to a viable personal future.
We’ve also tackled the practical concerns that often become hidden barriers in the application process. International students worry about visas, accommodation, and living costs. Dedicated sections on important information like living costs and visa requirements transform these anxieties into manageable processes with clear pathways and resources.
Throughout the brochure, thoughtfully integrated multimedia elements enhance both information delivery and user experience. WSU provided us with some fantastic high-quality photography of actual students, creating visual authenticity that stock imagery simply cannot match. Strategic videos, including the welcome message and application guides add depth to key decision points in the student journey.
Perhaps most importantly, we designed the brochure as a working piece of a broader digital ecosystem. Strategic links connect to WSU’s website and our student testimonial platform, creating seamless pathways that maintain engagement across multiple touchpoints. Embedded links throughout the brochure transform passing interest into immediate action opportunities, connecting prospects directly to application portals, scholarship details, and support services. This integration prevents the drop-off that typically occurs when prospects navigate between disconnected resources.
The results
The Western Sydney University interactive brochure represents a collaborative effort to enhance WSU’s international recruitment by focusing on engagement and delivering an authentic message to convert interest into applications and enrolments.
The multi-layered design transforms passive browsing into active engagement. Each interaction represents an opportunity to deepen the relationship with WSU’s offerings. Instead of flipping pages and forgetting content, students are participating in their own discovery process. It’s a much more memorable and impactful experience.
WSU’s international student guide is one of the longer ones in our portfolio, at 26 pages. That’s already much shorter than most 200-something page PDF brochures we see, while still holding the same amount of important info. The layered format further breaks that information down into digestible chunks. Students are more able to discover information relevant to their specific interests at their own pace. This approach respects their agency while ensuring they can access all the details they need to make confident decisions about their educational future.
For international students unable to visit campus before applying, establishing emotional connection is particularly vital. The combination of authentic student voices, embedded videos, and campus photography creates a visceral sense of place and community that static materials simply cannot achieve.
By integrating with WSU’s website and the Why I Study Here testimonial platform, the brochure establishes a unified recruitment narrative across all touchpoints, a consistency that strengthens brand perception and prevents drop-off.
In an environment where universities compete intensely for international students, this approach provides WSU with a distinctive recruitment asset that differentiates it from the crowd. Transforming complex information into engaging experiences, integrating multimedia content with purpose, and creating seamless connections to the broader digital ecosystem leads to a recruitment asset that actively works to convert interest into enrolment.
Analytics
