Colleges Ontario has introduced a $400,000 marketing campaign encouraging the province’s Aboriginal population to consider a post-secondary education.
Created by Spirit Creative, an Ottawa agency that specializes in marketing to Aboriginal Peoples, the “Break Your Own Trail” campaign is comprised of print, radio, online and poster elements.
There is also a fax and direct mail component targeting Aboriginal communities in the province’s most remote areas. “In some of these communities, it’s absolutely the best way to go,” said Colleges Ontario president and CEO Linda Franklin.
Co-funded by Ontario’s 24 colleges and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, the campaign debuted yesterday and will run throughout April and May and again this fall.
In a 2010 throne speech, the Ontario government predicted that 70% of jobs in the so-called “new world” will require a post-secondary education. While Ontario currently boasts one of the highest rates of post-secondary education in the world at 62% (it has added 180,000 students to colleges, universities and apprenticeships since 2003) the McGuinty government’s Open Ontario Plan calls for that number to reach 70% within the next decade.
“That’s going to require us to reach many more students that traditionally don’t go on to a post-secondary education than we’ve ever reached before,” said Franklin, noting that the Aboriginal population represents a significant growth area for post-secondary enrollment.
Just over 15% of Ontario’s Aboriginal population currently pursues a post-secondary education, said Franklin, with approximately 12.8% pursuing a college education and 2.8% attending university.
Asked to outline the campaign objectives in terms of growing those numbers, Franklin said that it’s difficult since they reflect only those students who have identified themselves as Aboriginal. “There may be more students than that in post-secondary [institutions], but we just don’t know about them,” she said.
“Right now colleges are attracting more Aboriginal students by far,” said Franklin. “I hope the campaign is persuasive to Aboriginal students, wherever they choose to go – college or university – but our thinking is that at in the near-term it’s going to be easier to persuade Aboriginal students to start in college.”
Franklin said that the campaign’s “dream state” imagery is likely to resonate with the Aboriginal community through its use of natural elements like trees and water. The “Break Your Own Trail” slogan is also meant to appeal to Aboriginal students’ strong sense of community. “They break a new trail and others follow after them, that means they are not only helping themselves but they’re helping their community to advance,” she said.
Colleges Ontario spent a year developing the campaign in association with colleges, Aboriginal leaders and Aboriginal communities throughout the province. “We spent an awful lot of time making sure that we understood the nature of what was going to reach Aboriginal students effectively,” said Franklin. “It was a fairly lengthy process, but a really good process because it got a very high consensus around the program we eventually went out with.”
All of the creative leads to the dedicated web sites YourOwnTrail.ca and TracezVotreVoie.ca, which in turn feature links to each of the province’s colleges.
