The Advertising Club of Edmonton

Problem

ACE identified that they had low brand awareness throughout Edmonton Post Secondaries and wanted to increase brand awareness and enrollment through a marketing campaign.

When conducting our comprehensive audit, we looked for other gaps and potential issues that may be affecting ACE. We observed that they had lower than expected engagement/attendance during their high value networking events. Due to this insight, we increased the scope of our recommendations to account for this.

Insights & Research

Another important consideration was the capital and time resources available to ACE. Both were quite low since ACE is a volunteer based Non-For-Profit. As a result, our suggestions/recommendations had to account for those restrictions.

Based on information from the brief from ACE, background research including a SWOT analysis, PESTEL, and surveys with the target audience we concluded 4 things; 

• Students want access to the services offered by ACE such as mentoring and job postings but there is a lack of awareness and access to information about ACE as well as the advertising industry as a whole.

• Students and Professors desire meaningful connections and experiences intertwined in their personal and professional lives which ACE is well positioned to provide.

•  Students have misconceptions about the advertising industry.

• Students struggle with findings employment after graduation in their respective industries.

We utilized knowledge in psychology to discover insight on student mentality. We observed that a lot of students aren’t necessarily pursuing a career that they find fulfilling, which tends to cause issues throughout their life with drive and motivation.

During our research we identified that they also had a problem with student retention, where ACE had many high value, low frequency events (like networking events - which had low engagement/participation). But they were missing lower value, higher frequency services, that allowed for the ace brand to be integrated into their members lifestyle more frequently, so that ace could remain more top of mind. This will be discussed later.

Goal

Increase student awareness in major post secondaries in the Edmonton area, increase student memberships by 100%, and increase participation and activity within the organization’s events. 

Outer space. a place of discovery. A place where we look to the future, where we look to see the bigger picture in life. Space is a place filled with adventure, opportunity, and endless possibility. What if there were portals in space. Where would they go? Where would they take us? What if there was a portal that took us to where we want to be. Took us to a better place in our lives, a place of adventure and opportunity. 

ACE is the gateway to the world of advertising. Using a story focused concept that allowed for a creative way to show students the value that ace can provide them, in as little words as possible.

The ACE up your sleeve campaign represents an overarching theme of providing access to different spheres including professional, educational and social resources.

ACE is your key into the industry. ACE opens doors. ACE is your access into the world of advertising.

From our research, we identified that students have misconceptions around the advertising industry, and tend not to pursue careers that they fund fulfilling. The goal was to bring to light the similarities between space exploration and the world of advertising. From the excitement, wonder, to the endless opportunity.

We saw ACE becoming the ultimate hub for all thing advertising in Edmonton. Keeping that in mind, we took the brief one step further, proposing recommendations tailored to their context, but curated under the larger vision.

Our strategic process began with auditing the brand, and looking for underlying insights that may be causing the problems that ACE identified.

Then we utilized those insights to develop recommendations tailored to the brand, market, and their specific services. We paired those recommendations with a community driven model which prioritized in-person, physical touch points, which would then be followed up by digital touchpoints.

We developed a 3 phase approach to present our strategic process, recommendations, and tactics. Phase 1 and 2 addressed the clients request and brief, while phase 3 contained the additional recommendations we proposed to elevate the brand long term.

Phase 1: Information & Awareness

Focused around establishing authority and providing value. Introducing the ACE brand into student awareness and informing students on ACEs services that can directly benefit them.

These tactics were presented in a 3-way model of present, educate, engage.

The first tactic introduced the brand through use of story focused visual posters, which through visual storytelling, utilized a strong creative concept to communicate the value that ACE provides students. 

To address the second stage, we proposed two social media campaigns called the student series and the alumni series. The student series focused around teaching students about the various roles in the advertising industry, since we observed that the vast majority of students have an inaccurate perception of the advertising industry, and the roles within it. The alumni series focused on relatability, where recent grads shared stories of how they were able to enter into the industry. The purpose of this was to show students that achieving a career in the advertising industry is realistic and attainable, and demonstrating that through personable stories and paths that they can follow.

Addressing the third stage, we reintroduced the class presentation tactic. Individuals from the ace team go to various classrooms and present the brand to classes. This has been extremely successful in ACE’s past.

Phase 2: Retention

Focused around creating new opportunities for ace to integrate into student lifestyle. 

As mentioned earlier, we identified that we observed lower than expected engagement/attendance during their high value networking events – and that a lack of low value, high frequency services were likely to be the cause (or might be a strong and effective solution).

We proposed that a cafe discount card be added to their membership. Students and teachers often go to nearby cafes to study or relax. This discount would organically create frequent and consistent opportunities for students to be exposed to the ace brand, through the use of the discount card. It would also provide tangible value that students could utilize immediately, instead of the promise of future networking sessions far off into the future.

Addressing our observation on the struggles that students have entering industry, we suggested ACE create free resources targeted specifically for students in advertising. These resources could include templates and guides for writing resumes, cover letters, portfolios, and email specific to the advertising industry.

Finally, we proposed a custom ad campaign that utilized the creative concept while promoting the new café discount service.

Phase 3:
Long Term Engagement

This strategy is focused around strengthening aces business model to support long term growth. Integrating the brand deeper into daily student life through channels that encourage live/active engagement. This was presented as an optional phase that would take place independently from the schedule that the first 2 phases were designed for.

The first service we proposed was an app. Currently, discovering resources, events, and job listings on the ace website is a more manual process. An app would allow ace to communicate directly to their members through notifications. It would allow members to filter and set notifications for job listings. It could sync with the users calendar to increase event reminder organically through the phone. It could allow for networking and connection potential through profiles, and message boards. The opportunities are endless. 

We also suggested that ace create a podcast, where content dedicated to shining a light on the experiences of professionals in the industry would be placed.