This story has been updated.
Vancouver Community College (VCC) has launched a $120,000 brand awareness campaign to position itself as a true, urban college experience.
The campaign includes media domination of a downtown SkyTrain station, radio ads on local radio station Beat 94.5, campus posters and T-shirts, backpacks and buttons with visual elements designed by Concerto Marketing Group of Vancouver.
“They have a lot of continuing education students and a lot of students looking to live and work downtown, almost like they are trying to get away to school from the suburbs,” said Craig Redmond, Concerto’s creative director, adding that in addition to high school graduates, the college is targeting those already working in a career that they are unhappy with.
Redmond said research showed students chose the college because of its downtown location and the community outreach programs, such as free dental hygiene clinics offered by the School of Health Sciences to people in the Downtown Eastside.
The radio ads feature students saying: “VCC is more than a school, it’s a community.”
“A very important part of our mandate at VCC is to extend education beyond the classroom, to play a part in our urban community,” said Kathy Kinloch, VCC president.
The next phase of the campaign will include students from VCC’s culinary school cooking food at the downtown SkyTrain station.
