Western has enlisted some familiar faces to tell its extraordinary story. And this month, that story goes national.
Created in-house by Western’s Creative Services team within Communications and Public Affairs, an alumni-focused print advertising campaign was rolled out regionally in May, with exposure in the London Free Press, Toronto Life, London Business Magazine, Ottawa Magazine, Canadian Family and Western Alumni Gazette. Starting this month, that campaign spreads nationally via the Globe and Mail and Report on Business Magazine.
The university debuted its first national print ad, featuring lifestyle guru and HGTV host Sarah Richardson, BA’93, in the Globe and Mail on Oct. 30.
“We are excited about this,” said Helen Connell, Communications and Public Affairs associate vice-president. “The few ads that have run so far have drawn comments from a lot of people, some of them surprised the featured person was a graduate of Western.”
While the campaign has surpassed the halfway mark, there is still a lot of work to be done, Connell explained. These ads will help raise Western’s profile for excellence. And what a better way to tell that story than through successful alumni.
“It’s a great opportunity – and another great way – for us to tell our story,” she said. “We have some extraordinary people.”
In addition to Richardson, upcoming ads will feature Cameron Bailey, BA’87, Toronto Film Festival artistic director; Glenn Stevens, MA’85, Reserve Bank of Australia governor general; Paul Beeston, BA’67, LLD’94, Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO; Roberta Jamieson, LLB’76, Indspire president and CEO; Stephan Moccio, BMUs’94, singer and songwriter; Perrin Beatty, BA’71, LLD’13, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president; and Louise Pitre, BMus’79, DMus’06, musical theatre actress.
“We wanted to profile recognizable alumni in a variety of fields and geographies as proof points to Western’s tradition of developing leaders,” said Diana Cunningham, alumni and development communications director. “Be it music and leadership, performance and creativity, advocacy and healing, we have a lot of different attributes that are shaped through the Western Experience.
“It is also to engage our alumni and appeal to their sense of pride and how Western has touched the lives and careers of many who have gone on to do extraordinary things. And they all got their start at Western. Hopefully, this reminds our alumni how it all started at Western for them as well, and compels them to make that possible for future alumni.”
Building off the overall Western campaign theme of Be Extraordinary, the ad campaign is the first-ever by the university using its ‘name’ alumni to help promote the university and, in turn, its campaign. The advertisements use of big, bold photographs in concert with crisp copy to draw the eye and interest of readers, said Terry Rice, creative services director.
“From lead actors to the leaders of central banks, we can bring them all together in this one campaign,” he said.
Western plans to continue adding names to the campaign, expanding to more geographies, disciplines and years, as it continues through early 2015. An online and social media component will follow in early 2014.
An online advertising component of this scale is new to Western, Rice said. When launched, online ads will drive traffic to Western’s campaign website, extraordinary.westernu.ca, incorporating videos, fuller profiles of the featured alumni as well as testimonials from faculty, students and other alumni.
The social media component will allow alumni to share these stories with each other, their friends and the world, Rice said.
