McGill University’s School of Continuing Studies has launched a promotional video on YouTube and Facebook for the first time to raise awareness and tout the school’s merits.
The video is primarily targeting millennials and international students as well as current students, staff and alumni.
“Our target market is mainly online and we felt that producing a video of this type would really allow us to reach this target market,” says Elana Trager, senior marketing and communications advisor at McGill’s School of Continuing Studies in Montreal.
The video is based on the experiences of six students and alumni, including one who leveraged what she learned in the school’s Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship program to open up her own clothing boutique, B-Lux, in Montreal’s Plateau Mont Royal area. It also focuses on a student seeking to learn a new language in order to be able to teach children music.
Shot at McGill, it shows the students’ journeys, from registration to classroom and ends with the tag line “Your journey starts here.”
“The video really helps showcase how open and accessible the school is to the Montreal community, but also internationally,” Trager says.
Launched in early April and produced by agencies Akufen and Koze, the video had 14,495 views in its first week on YouTube, surpassing a goal of 10,000. It also topped a goal of 2,500 views on its first day on Facebook.
“We were benchmarking against ourselves, not having done this type of campaign before,” Trager says.
McGill will be promoting the video for the next month using ads on social media and through email.
A second video is planned and the school is using the hashtag #McGillSCS to collect comments, photos and videos from students and alumni about their goals and experiences at the school. The first 50 submissions will get “care packages” from the school, with promotional items like key chains, pens and Post-it notes.
The video is part of a wider marketing campaign that launched last August that uses a ladder and the slogan “Learn. Connect. Elevate.” (“Apprendre. S’engager. Grandir.” in French.)
The campaign has been featured primarily online and in social media, in print and in Montreal’s metro system.
Trager says the word “learn” focuses on the education and skills that can be obtained at the school, “connect” focuses on connections among students, staff and alumni and “elevate” refers to alumni who thrive and expand their reach.
Trager says since the campaign launched awareness of the school has increased and registration last fall was up by 4%.
The target group for the overall campaign is primarily 25-45 year-olds, with an 18-25-year-old cohort internationally.
McGill’s School of Continuing Studies has 14,000 students yearly, most of whom are working professionals looking to upgrade their skills or change careers.
PGPR public relations in Montreal is handling media relations for the school.
