We introduced a bolder UNB to the world in 2015, launching a reinvigorated visual identity and modernized, responsive website, and rolling out the largest and most innovative national recruitment-marketing campaign in UNB’s history.
The refreshed UNB brand is the culmination of four years of research and engagement with close to 10,000 UNB faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners. Faced with population and enrolment challenges, extremely low awareness of UNB outside of the Maritimes and an increasingly competitive post-secondary landscape, we knew we had to do more.
#OnlyHere tells the story of an institution that partners with Google and NASA while boasting one of the best faculty-to-student ratios in the country. It reflects the creativity and strength of an institution that’s been thriving for 230 years.
We've introduced UNB to high school students, their parents and guidance counsellors in the Maritimes, Ontario and Alberta - often for the first time. UNB is featured in print ads and articles (e.g. The Globe and Mail, Macleans, etc.), cinemas in the Maritimes and Ontario, digital ads and videos (e.g. CBC, Sportsnet, YouTube, etc.), social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn), and posters in high schools. We also crashed the 2015 Ontario Universities Fair, providing 3D virtual tours with cardboard Google goggles, and picking up post-secondary and industry awards for innovative marketing.
The #OnlyHere campaign is strategic, innovative and unique. The creative concept was tested in quantitative research with 800 applicants and 2500 UNB community members, and validated in focus groups with high school students in Atlantic Canada and Ontario.
And it’s generating results.
In our first year in market, we reached tens of thousands of potential students and their parents in our target markets. We saw substantial increases in key metrics such as website visitors, campus tours, recruitment event attendance, social media engagement, and more. And applications to UNB after our first year in market have increased by more than 5 percent.
We're tremendously proud of UNB - an institution that's been quietly driving research and innovation in Canada since 1785, and shaping the lives of more than 84,000 living alumni. And now we're sharing our story with the world in bold and exciting way.
