Credit: Joshua Hoehne via Unsplash
The University of New England has become the first Australian educational institution to advertise on ChatGPT, piloting OpenAI's new alpha program through dentsu media agency Carat.
The pilot tests whether conversational advertising can drive discovery of UNE courses.
Ads appear within ChatGPT conversations when a user's prompt signals relevant intent, requiring creative built for that environment rather than recycled search copy.
It launched in mid-April as part of OpenAI's early Australian rollout.
Dentsu head of digital media Australia Andrew Macdonald said UNE had grown from a media-only client to a full network partnership covering Merkle, Tag and Dentsu Creative Public Relations.
"It's exciting to have a client partner like UNE, who understands the strength of their brand and works with our teams in experimenting with innovative formats that align with student intent and learning behaviour," Macdonald said.
UNE director of marketing Michaela Lobb said the university was not waiting for the market to move first.
"We're not waiting for the market to catch up, we're actively shaping it,” Lobb said.
“This pilot positions UNE as first to market in using conversational AI as a performance channel, giving us a real-time, data-first view of how prospective students are discovering and deciding on higher education.
"For UNE, this is a natural evolution. We've been pioneering distance education for more than 70 years.
“Now we're applying that same mindset to AI, opening up new, more intuitive pathways for people to find their way into higher education, be it young people or learners at any stage of life.
Lobb said it wasn’t experimentation for the sake of it.
"It's about understanding, in real time, what drives engagement, intent and action, while using that to build a more responsive, performance-led student journey,” she said.
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