Hyper Island Students Make a Global Imprint with ‘IT STARTED WITH HI’

The Content Production module offers students real-world experience across the full content production cycle from ideation to execution. While Hyper Island students typically work with external clients, this module flips the script. Treating the school itself as the client enables students to push creative limits and create content for a brand they know intimately. 

This year, seven teams were formed to create a campaign that would elevate Hyper Island’s brand awareness. All teams pitched their creative campaign concepts to a jury made up of an industry leader and Hyper Island’s marketing team. The team consisting of Nicole Herslund, Pontus Kandelin, Hanna Lindqvist, Sara Lysén, and Teodor von Arndt presented IT STARTED WITH HI, a concept that was praised for its scalability, emotional depth, and strong alignment with the school’s brand.

“The concept idea plays with semantics. ‘HI’ is both an acronym for Hyper Island and serves as a greeting – a symbol of a new start. We wanted the concept to carry a narrative potential in order to spark an emotional connection to the audience,” Nicole explains.

Photo: Maria Andrea Garcia 

Collaboration lies at the heart of Hyper Island’s methodology. Students were free to organize their creative process but had access to guidance from industry leaders Carl-Johan Mölstad and Sofia Ahedo Zahuo and a line-up of guest lecturers.

“We wanted to stand out, so we explored a lot of directions, taking in everyone’s input, assessing strengths and blind spots of each idea in relation to the brief.” says Sara.

The team’s research revealed a missing element: while Hyper Island had plenty of informative content, there was a missing piece of content that conveyed strong emotion while highlighting post-graduate perspectives.

“We kept asking ourselves what we felt was missing when we applied. We realised prospective students are often looking for an understanding of what happens after having studied a program, not just during it. We also realised that it’s not enough to explain Hyper Island in informative terms. We wanted people to feel what it’s all about on an emotional level, not just through informative descriptions,” says Hanna.

The campaign’s central asset is a hero film under a minute long, charting a character’s growth from that first uncertain “hi” to a confident step into the industry.

“We aimed to show both professional development and personal transformation. That shift, from nervous introduction to empowered greeting, is something most people can relate to in one way or another,” Teo explains.

In addition to the hero film, the brief asked for organic, conversion-focused video content. The team chose to balance their emotional centerpiece with a documentary-style portrait that grounded the campaign in a real case. One such story featured Erik Granholm, who pivoted from selling used cars to becoming the current Marketing Manager at Norrsken. 

“His journey was striking, real, and inspiring. We felt it had to be shared,” Sara adds.

In the mid-project pitch, the team presented their concept to the jury. While the emotional resonance and brand fit were applauded, some raised concerns whether the hero film could realistically be produced at the intended quality and scope considering the tight time schedule of the module.

“We were told the narrative twist in our hero film would risk being too ambitious for our resources,” Teo recalls.

“But that feedback only fueled our drive,” Pontus adds.

Despite having no budget, a tight timeline, and an unclear production plan, the team moved forward.

“We made the most of the resources we had by discovering a talented actress from Hyper Island, securing a great location through our network, and combining our skills to create real synergy that made pre-production run surprisingly smoothly,” says Pontus.

“At least until Erik fell sick the day of the production, reminding us to always stay adaptable to abrupt changes,” Nicole adds.

In the final week before the deadline, as Erik Granholm fell ill, the team was forced to quickly reschedule and complete everything from the interview and b-roll to editing and delivery within just 24 hours.

“We went all hands on deck the night before the deadline. People are often surprised when they hear the entire organic film came together in less than 24 hours, from shoot to final cut. Fortunately, we take that as a sign that the quality didn’t suffer,” Hanna concludes.

Photo: Maria Andrea Garcia 

From January to April 2025, IT STARTED WITH HI served as the official recruitment campaign for Hyper Island's YH programs, launched on TikTok and Meta with targeting across global markets, including both EU and non-EU countries. Over three and a half months, the campaign has reached nearly four million people and driven more than seven million impressions. 

Recognising the campaign’s potential for showcasing a broader representation of Hyper Island alumni stories, the team proposed to produce two additional organic films, and an extension of the campaign is now underway. What started out as a school assignment has grown into a professional campaign, proving that when creativity meets efficient collaboration and strong vision, the results can go far beyond the original brief.