Optimism

In just shy of a century, UCLA has achieved, innovated, and accomplished more than most institutions twice its age. It’s where the Internet first blinked to life. Where racial integration began, decades before Brown v. Board of Education. Where Nobel Laureates, Academy

Award winners, Fortune 500 executives and entrepreneurs, rock stars and Hall of Famers, inventors and initiators got their start. A penchant for ‘firsts’ and a pattern of fierce independence is part of UCLA’s DNA, ensuring its outcomes span the breadth of human endeavor. But it’s also led to decentralization and University-wide struggles to cohesively communicate impact. UCLA recognized the need to redefine itself in the eyes of the public, and called on 160over90 to create a brand that would elevate perception; celebrate differences and difference makers; and reposition UCLA as a world-leading University.

160over90 identified a common thread in this complex, wildly diverse, multidimensional institution—a palpable sense of optimism. Just about every student, faculty, and staff member, no matter their background, exuded an air of informed optimism, infectious enthusiasm, and certainty that they could make a difference. This inspiring ethos became the through-line of the new brand, ‘Optimists.’

We launched a star-studded reputational campaign featuring film icons James Dean, James Franco, and Francis Ford Coppola; athletes Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Jackie Robinson, and famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden; and scientific discoverers from astronaut Anna Lee Fisher to Internet founder Vinton Cerf—all UCLA alumni, and all game-changers in their respective fields who shared a common, unyielding optimism.

The campaign came to life though nationally broadcast TV spots, outdoor, digital, radio, print, and non-traditional. Optimism was infused throughout viewbooks, acceptance packages, and the .edu. And it was applied across all 12 colleges, the health system, advancement, and athletics, unifying an $8 billion, 42-unit institution under one brand voice.

Campaign web presence for The Optimists university-wide ad campaign, serving as a vehicle for sharing the countless compelling stories of UCLA game-changers found across every field.