NCI Blog

National College of Ireland’s latest marketing campaign brings to life the message: "You don't do it alone, we're with you every step of the way". It’s a story of resilience, creativity, and community - values that reflect the student experience at National College of Ireland. Like every one of our students, the central character is given the tools to assist them as they traverse through the challenges of academic life.

2025: An Ad Odyssey

This ad campaign is grounded in research.

The source of data for that research? NCI alumni; current undergrad and postgrad, full-time and part-time students; the guidance counsellors who assist school-leavers to choose their next step; the lecturers in Further Education who encourage their graduates onto Higher Education; and the businesses across multiple sectors that employ NCI graduates. And the findings of that research?

"NCI is perceived as an innovative higher education institute leading in technology and business practice, that supports, encourages and empowers its students to reach their full potential".

Everyone who knows NCI appreciates NCI – but when potential students nationwide are surveyed, the name of the college does not reach the same unprompted or instant recognition as other, bigger higher education institutes. The challenge for the 2025 ad campaign was set: draw on the perceptions of those who know NCI to communicate the brand of the college to those who don’t.

The Constant Marketer

“Our previous campaigns focused on individual student voices - real stories, honestly told. That commitment to authenticity hasn’t changed, and the move away from using real students wasn't taken lightly, but the strategy to build brand recognition required a wider brush. We couldn’t paint the big picture by using individual students having undertaken specific programmes,” explains Emily Ferns, Head of Marketing at NCI.

“Luckily, we can continue to communicate those personal and distinct experiences our alumni are so happy to share, through blogs and social media, but in our ad campaign we needed to tell the full story, not just to promote courses but to show what it feels like to be a student at NCI.”

Director of Marketing and International Recruitment at NCI, Robert Ward, continues, “we agreed on our strategy in-house as a Marketing Team before we went to brief, talking to both our creative and our media agencies at the same time, so that placement and budget also fed into the process of making this ad.

“One thing clear from our research was the association of NCI with cutting edge technology, most particularly leadership in the area of technology education. However, our final ad had to tell a broader brand story: the social and pedagogic integrity at the heart of NCI, no matter what programme you undertake.”

Brief Encounters

“Eyecue has worked with NCI on a number of campaigns over many years. This means I’ve helped tell the stories of a lot of NCI graduates, from all backgrounds, who studied at different levels in different disciplines,” says John Carvill, Creative Director of Eyecue. “Hearing them so gladly sharing their positive stories has even led me to recommending the college to a few people myself! But it was exciting to get to communicate a different story about NCI: to say more, even while saying less.

“It was also useful for us all to be in the room all together at the briefing, to be able to consider media targeting, KPIs, timelines and spend while making the creative, rather than creating the concept and then sometimes having to tweak or retrofit it to meet a specific media need."

“It was a very collaborative process, even as we all contributed specific expertise.”.

Emily Ferns adds, “Our media partners, Spark Foundry (part of Core), came on board in 2023, so would not have had the same depth of knowledge or familiarity with NCI as Eyecue does. Having them at the table from the start allowed them a deeper understanding of the campaign’s narrative, so they could plan formats and phasing that actively support the creative. There was such a sense of partnership during this process, leading to a joined-up, consistent and strategically clear rollout of the final campaign.”

AI Ex Machina

“The research pointed to a clear association between NCI and cutting-edge technology, so we felt it was important to embrace technology in the creative,” explains John Carvill.

“We considered many ideas: one of the early proposals was of drones creating images in the sky. I’d go so far as to say that we presented a range of ideas based on With You Every Step Of The Way, from safe to adventurous, and NCI picked the most daring of them all!

“AI came into the creative from the NCI machine, not as a knee-jerk reaction to a trend. At Eyecue, we were already aware of James Gerde’s work through Instagram and really loved it, but it was well after we had cracked the advertising idea and specific execution that we thought of making the commercial in his style. We had found our acrobat, we had found our animated character with an umbrella, and we thought, what if this was origami? Take the potential of piece of paper and turn it into something special? A bit like NCI and their students.”

Watch a short video showing the storyboard, the initial live action cut, the first draft animations and then the final ad.

AI in NCI

“NCI has done a lot of work around AI, not just as an integrated part of our Academic Integrity policy and our guidance to students on ethical usage but also in public debate and in research that explores the potential for inequality and discrimination to be magnified by AI, as well as research that applies AI positively and effectively in businesses and the wider community” adds Robert Ward. 

“NCI started life as a workers’ college, so we are aware too of the fear that AI will take people’s jobs and/or cheapen the value of labour, most especially the labour of artists whose work has already been scraped. 

“This ad neither steals anyone’s creative work nor anyone’s job. In fact, there were more humans involved in making this campaign than in our previous campaigns that featured people!" 

“NCI has always challenged, is always at the leading edge of innovation. If, as well as making people curious about NCI’s programmes and supports, our ad stirs discussion about techniques, skills, effort and where AI tools fit into work, then I’ll be happy."

"I don’t necessarily feel qualified myself to contribute to the conversation on where AI fits with creativity or the creative industries, but I’ll direct people to James Gerde’s own words, about the value of AI when used as a tool by a skilled artist.”

Making Art in an AI World

To learn more about James' work, please visit Exhibitions | Gerde Got It.

“I have a background in film, VFX and graphic design… and I have never found as much fulfilment as with these tools… they are best used by people who already do these things… I get slotted in next to the 3D artist and we work together on this… it’s not removing anything from the equation, I think that it’s only going to build towards it.” – James Gerde.

Cast & Credits

National College of Ireland

• Robert Ward, Director of Marketing & International Development
• Emily Ferns, Head of Marketing
• Andrea Leyden, Digital Marketing Team Lead

Eyecue

• John Carvill, Creative Director
• Beibhinn Harman, Senior Art Director
• Patrick Chapman, Senior Copywriter

James Martin Studio

• James Martin, Cameraman
• Phillip Martin, Lighting Cameraman

Cast

• Nicola Moran, Trapeze Artist
• Merlin Stone, Rigger

GerdeGotIt

• James Gerde, Filmmaker and AI Animator
• Jordan Callahan, Head of Business Development

Editor

• Marcus Doyle

Voice Over

• Hugh Lynch

Aistriúchán agus guthú

• Donnchadh Ó Madagáin

Music

• Taizo Audio

Sound

• Mick Creedon, Sound design

Download a PDF copy of the cast and credits by clicking here.