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As a private career college with campuses in Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton, Robertson has built its reputation around one simple promise: helping people gain the skills and support they need to build meaningful careers.
Brandish serves as Robertson’s strategic partner, leading research, media, creative and activation. This assignment represented the largest strategic investment of the partnership: a one-time brand initiative focused on building growth in Alberta.
Federal policy changes significantly reduced international student intake, impacting an important source of tuition revenue, while domestic enrolment demand softened across Canada. Brandish was tasked with helping Robertson grow domestic enrolment quickly in a market where awareness was almost nonexistent.
But Alberta also represented opportunity. The province was experiencing historic population growth, welcoming tens of thousands of newcomers from across Canada and creating a new generation of potential students looking to build their next chapter.
If demand follows migration, the People don’t just choose a school. They choose where they want their future to happen.
As more Canadians moved to Alberta, Brandish identified an opportunity to build familiarity and trust with people making one of the biggest decisions of their lives.
At the same time, changes to financial aid requirements increased the value of on-campus education, giving Robertson’s Calgary and Edmonton campuses a meaningful advantage for students seeking accessible, career-focused training.
The strategy became simple: show up where people already are, build trust through community presence, then turn that familiarity into action through performance media.
The platform was confident, straightforward and built around Robertson’s biggest differentiator: career support from the first day of school through to employment.
The strategy came to life through a bold creative platform, targeted out-of-home and social, sponsorships and partnerships, and a measurement framework designed to keep the investment accountable.
Transit placements read “Wait for the bus, not your career,” airport screens promised “Get hired. Fly higher.” and a Winnipeg billboard admitted “Actually, this billboard also gets you hired. Eventually."
The buy spanned Calgary airport screens and a static spectacular, transit murals and shelters across Calgary and Edmonton, billboards across three cities, and mall placements paired with social creative.
Sponsorships covered the Edmonton Oilers and Stingers, the Calgary Flames, Wranglers and Hitmen, Calgary Surge, and Calgary Wild. At the Edmonton Heritage Festival, an on-site activation invited festival-goers to graffiti a desk with their Canadian-isms.
By following where people were moving, showing up in their communities and connecting education directly to opportunity, the campaign created something more valuable than awareness. It created trust.
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