Seneca is putting a personal touch on its latest creative campaign, which highlights the transformative impact of its polytechnic education through the success stories of five alumni. With the tagline “This is Seneca Polytechnic,” the campaign emphasizes polytechnic education as the core of Seneca’s identity, as well as what differentiates it from other institutions in the sector.

“Our new campaign highlights both the unique advantages a polytechnic education at Seneca offers and the remarkable career successes of our graduates,” Renata D’Innocenzo, VP of strategy and brand at Seneca Polytechnic, tells strategy. “We accomplish this by focusing on five statements that define the Seneca Polytechnic difference, featuring five Seneca graduates and showing how they are each thriving in their professions of choice. Our graduates leave Seneca both career-ready and world-ready and ‘This is Seneca Polytechnic’ tells that story.”

D’Innocenzo says the campaign builds on the success of previous work such as “Challenge Accepted,” which also focused on graduates and their professional achievements. For this campaign, however, the institution decided to go even bolder, focusing on messages that define what “polytechnic” is, along with visual elements to further grab the attention of its audience, D’Innocenzo explains.

Initially launched in 2019 with some refreshes in later years, the “Challenge Accepted” campaign instead revolved around a TV and online ad featuring a speech by Seneca’s founding president about the overall success of the institution’s graduates.

That new “seeing is believing” approach was tailored to capture attention across online, broadcast and OOH, D’Innocenzo says.

“We operate in a very crowded postsecondary landscape so it’s important that we continue to invest in promoting polytechnic education, telling our story and attracting new students while standing out amongst the noise,” she says. “There’s always a steady evolution of employment demands across the industries we serve so we recognize the need to keep both our academic programming and the marketing that supports it current, engaging and purposeful, while continually promoting the value of experiential learning.”

The campaign’s target audience is students looking for an education that meets their needs, as well as professionals looking to upgrade their skills or change industries, and companies looking to attract high-quality employees. It’s a broad audience with different needs, but D’Innocenzo that “‘This is Seneca Polytechnic’ was designed to share and showcase our polytechnic education story in Canada and overseas.”

D’Innocenzo adds that the media mix is comparable to previous campaigns, as they have received positive feedback from national and international audiences who have seen their work in different media.

The campaign was developed in partnership with Ultralight Creative for creative. Media buying was handled by Twenty6two and Major Tom.