Concordia U illustration made with colourful flowers

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY OF EDMONTON

A university experience that’s all about U

In Edmonton’s crowded post-secondary market, it’s a challenge for smaller universities to compete with large institutions for a spot in the minds of prospective students.

Concordia University U graphic as a science experiment

THE CHALLENGE

To position CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY as an unparalleled post-secondary institution in Edmonton that offers a personalized education to prospective students.

Concordia University U graphic as a fish

THE SOLUTION

what do you want?

Knowing that Gen Zers, the new wave of incoming university students, are seeking individuality, we wanted to ask them—why settle for a conventional university experience when you can have one that is uniquely tailored to your needs? From this idea, we built our creative campaign, calling it “All About U”.

A colourful mosaic of Concordia University campaign illustrations

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Concordia University U graphic as a unicorn

A U FOR EVERYONE

In our creative concept we take the letter U and use it as an illustrative tool to show differentiation and uniqueness, mirroring Gen Z students who would be interested in attending CUE.

The different Us were tied together with a distinct, bright, and exciting colour palette as well as a clear, concise tag line—“Unique to you.” The aesthetic was approachable and cut through the clutter. The bright colours helped differentiate CUE from the other post-secondary institutions and their more collegiate approaches to recruitment.

For our target audience, we knew that digital platforms—particularly social media—would be important channels to reach teens. We developed a strong paid and organic digital strategy that carries teens through the early stages of the consumer journey.

Our organic strategy outlined organic engagement opportunities like takeovers and messaging matrixes that CUE could execute. The digital strategy outlined how the messages would be distributed cohesively over social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook (including instant experience) as well as through the Google Display Network and Spotify.

Accompanying the digital strategy were two additional elements: a traditional media buy and CUE’s annual fall open house, for which we created branded collateral based on the All About U creative.

The media buy covered Cineplex, transit, billboards that moved every two weeks to different high traffic residential areas, and poster placements in high schools throughout Edmonton and surrounding communities.