Student union’s big bill for ‘YouX’ rebrand | Adelaide News

The scholar-elected board of the 1895-established Adelaide College Union (AUU) determined in November 2021 to rebrand to “YouX”, saying the brand new identify would hyperlink the organisation to “person expertise”.

However the rebrand was criticised by college students and acquired widespread media consideration – together with from nationwide information shops – given YouX can be the identify of a pornography web site. 

YouX is partly funded by college students by means of the obligatory pupil providers and facilities charge (SSAF), with the organisation offering pupil advocacy and employment providers together with funding for pupil media, golf equipment and occasions.

The organisation final 12 months refused to disclose how a lot the rebrand price, claiming it was industrial in confidence.

College of Adelaide pupil and YouX member Edward Satchell submitted a collection of freedom of knowledge (FOI) requests in Might 2022 in search of paperwork about the price of the rebrand and the reasoning behind it.

YouX initially refused to course of Satchell’s request, arguing it was not an “company” below South Australia’s FOI legal guidelines.

However this argument was rejected by the state Ombudsman who ordered YouX in January 2023 to launch 106 paperwork discovered throughout the scope of Satchell’s request.

YouX engaged authorized counsel to request a evaluate of the Ombudsman’s resolution within the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT) however dropped its authorized problem in Might – paving the best way for the paperwork to be launched.

The formerly-named AUU, which counts Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard as considered one of its former presidents, attracted nationwide media consideration final 12 months when it rebranded to YouX. Picture: Jason Katsaras/InDaily

Among the many newly launched paperwork seen by InDaily are confidential minutes of an AUU board assembly held on April 4, 2022.

The minutes report that Labor-affiliated board member Felix Eldridge requested former AUU government provide Gary Sutherland about the price of rebranding to YouX.

“Felix Eldridge asks the whole prices of rebranding thus far to which Gary Sutherland replied: $70,000,” the minutes state.

InDaily requested YouX if it had spent any further cash on the rebrand after April 4, 2022. A spokesperson replied that the whole price of analysis and growth of the brand new brand was $79,972.

“These prices had been unfold over a 3 12 months interval and included conducting a big scale survey and a number of focus teams, the event of brand name identification choices and inventive work, and all ultimate documentation, property and tips related to the brand new model,” the YouX spokesperson mentioned.

The spokesperson mentioned an extra $47,452 was spent on printing and manufacturing of newly branded supplies however insisted “a lot of this expenditure would have taken place regardless of the rebrand in an effort to change depleted inventory and replace outdated supplies”.

YouX mentioned final 12 months that the rebrand was funded totally by means of income from its industrial entities, not SSAF income. The spokesperson mentioned this remained the case.

YouX administered simply over $2.8m in SSAF funding in its 2023 funds, in response to one other doc launched through FOI.

The newly launched paperwork additionally present that student-elected board members pushed to take away the phrase “union” from the AUU’s title.

This was regardless of the previous AUU board receiving recommendation from College of Adelaide employees members that the YouX identify was not most well-liked by goal audiences, together with college students.

Confidential minutes of a board assembly held on October 13, 2021, report that the AUU’s head of engagement, Simone Bannister, and its advertising and occasions supervisor, Kearin Hausler, offered the board with “findings from testing with focus teams”.

“Teams consisting of 4 kinds of audiences had been examined on model names (AUU, Adelaide College Union, and youX),” the minutes state.

“It was concluded that the viewers’s most well-liked identify was AUU out of the three.”

Former AUU vice-president Isaac Trumble then argued in opposition to retaining the AUU model, in response to the minutes.

Trumble was for greater than two years an voters officer to former Boothby Liberal MP Nicolle Flint, in response to his LinkedIn. He declined to remark when contacted by InDaily.

“Isaac Trumble mentioned that the unique identify shouldn’t be retained, since a decline in membership might be noticed for a number of years as new college students will not be involved in becoming a member of,” the minutes report.

“To his opinion retaining the identify is just not going to assist the scenario.”

The October minutes additionally state that Trumble mentioned “college students don’t wish to join with the union” and the AUU identify is “not inclusive as there are people who find themselves strongly in opposition to the time period ‘union’”.

He’s additionally recorded as having a back-and-forth with employees members concerning the focus group testing.

“Isaac Trumble additional expressed how present college students don’t associating (sic) nicely with the time period ‘union’ and offered a number of circumstances in whic (sic) rebranding has led to a rise in pupil participation and membership,” the minutes state.

“Kearin Hausler expressed that analysis made it clear that private affiliation with the time period ‘union’ was very totally different throughout focus teams, together with dad and mom and highschool college students.

“Isaac Trumble argued that folks received’t be part of the union themselves, and present college students have already established a damaging connotation to the time period ‘union’.

“Kearin Hausler argued that folks do take part in Open Days, and that the damaging connotation was solely developed by means of their college expertise, not in the beginning.

“On this case, he thinks clarifying the providers and intention of the union utilizing a positioning assertion could be the most effective.”

The minutes report that former AUU president Oscar Ong then mentioned: “Many individuals are curious of ‘youX’, which is required to draw extra college students”. Ong declined to remark when contacted by InDaily.

In the identical October assembly, the AUU’s former government officer, Gary Sutherland, appeared to query the standard of the main target group analysis.

“Gary Sutherland mentioned that some biases had been nonetheless current within the analysis, reminiscent of how the e-mail containing the preliminary survey began with ‘Hey Union followers’,” the minutes state.

“Gary Sutherland additional described how beginning the viewers off with the unique identify “AUU” might additionally skew the end result.”

In line with the minutes, Labor-affiliated board member Billy Zimmerman defended the standard of the main target group testing.

“Billy Zimmermann argued that they’re professionals in conducting advertising analysis, to which Isaac Trumble mentioned that it’s naïve to consider professionals blindly,” the minutes state.

“Gary Sutherland talked about that the time period ‘union’ is consistently bashed in opposition to by college employees as nicely, whom, in contrast to college students, are a set a part of the stakeholder teams.”

Sutherland didn’t reply to inquiries from InDaily.

In a September 2021 electronic mail, Sutherland wrote to AUU head of engagement Simone Bannister that the AUU board’s view was “the one unequivocal factor concerning the rebrand is just not having the phrase ‘union’ within the organisation’s identify”.

YouX’s rebranded web site.

Additionally among the many 106 paperwork launched below FOI is a “grasp questions listing” ready by the AUU purportedly in preparation for engagement with media and stakeholders concerning the rebrand to YouX.

One of many questions within the listing is: “What does the AUU say to accusations that the elimination of the phrase ‘union’ is a political resolution?”

The ready response states: “This undertaking has been totally research-based, benefitting from exterior and goal experience and recommendation from branding company Nation.

“The only focus of the rebrand undertaking has been to attain higher engagement and repair provision for college kids and has concerned important pupil session.”

InDaily requested YouX why the main target group testing recommendation offered within the October 2021 board assembly was not adopted.

A spokesperson replied that the previous AUU board “thought-about a spread of recommendation and choices in making the choice to proceed with the rebrand”.

“The main target group testing was one a part of this course of and focussed on how the earlier AUU branding was seen by key audiences,” the spokesperson mentioned.

“Finally, the Board felt {that a} extra up to date model possibility was higher positioned to place the organisation to maximise engagement with present and future college students.”

Requested if the rebrand to YouX has been successful, the spokesperson mentioned: “The brand new model remains to be within the preliminary part of implementation after launching slightly below 12 months in the past, however thus far, outcomes have been constructive and we’ve got continued to see excessive engagement ranges throughout our on-campus and on-line actions.

“Model efficiency is finest measured over the long-term and our focus will likely be on the continued monitoring and constructing of the model, and making certain our college students have entry to the vital providers that we offer.”

Supported by the Authorities of South Australia