Newfoundland’s Target Marketing has been selected as the new agency of record for the College of the North Atlantic, a community and technical college with more than 25,000 students across Newfoundland and Labrador.
“We conducted a wide and rigorous search,” said Stephen Lee, the college’s marketing and communications manager, in a press release.
“And that search led us to Target. We were really impressed by Target’s track record for deep strategic thinking, tier one award-winning creative, and smart online and digital experience.”
Lee also mentioned Target’s experience with other post-secondary institutions in Canada, such as Brock University, as a key decider.
The RRP took about four months and “at least four other agencies” were in the running for the job, said Noel O’Dea, Target’s director of strategic and creative planning.
O’Dea told Marketing he wasn’t aware if agencies from outside of Atlantic Canada were also vying for the account, but he stressed that no spec creative was presented to the college during the review process, as per Target’s policies.
Target’s new campaign for the college will launch this summer, and will lean heavily on social media and broadcast components, O’Dea said. However, when asked about specifics about the creative approach, O’Dea remained tight-lipped.
O’Dea said Target, which is based in St. John’s, N.L., is now “up to its eyeballs” in research as it aims to launch its summer blitz and “differentiate the college in an advertising landscape best described as a sea of sameness.”
With 17 campuses across Newfoundland and Labrador focusing on community college classes and technical training, the College of the North Atlantic offers hundreds of programs, such as instruction on offshore petroleum engineering and technology.
The 50-year-old school has also operated a technical college in Qatar since 2002, which it bills as “Canada’s largest educational footprint outside of the country.”
