Succeed Sooner campaign promotes region’s career advancement advantages

Greater Edmonton is being showcased to Toronto students in an unprecedented multi-partner recruitment campaign. Edmonton Economic Development Corp. (EEDC) and the City of Edmonton — together with 18 other regional stakeholders — have launched a targeted marketing campaign to 300,000-plus students at seven post-secondary schools in Toronto. The Succeed Sooner campaign created by DDB Canada (Edmonton) will generate an estimated 11 million advertising impressions from March 3rd to April 4th to promote the many opportunities and advantages of a career in Edmonton.

Students are being targeted because of their need for jobs and career advancement, their greater mobility and the broad range of skills they offer. Research in 2007 found that Toronto students would be very interested in Edmonton’s comparative economic and life-enhancing advantages.

Toronto post-secondary students are being asked to visit the campaign’s anchor website — www.succeedsooner.ca — for information on Edmonton jobs, housing and quality-of-life. The campaign website is linked to www.edmonton.com/jobs where a customized version of wowjobs.ca provides job seekers simple and direct access to all posted jobs in Greater Edmonton. (The website wowjobs.ca is an Edmonton-based search engine that automatically collects and sorts jobs from the websites of all linked employers into one, easily searchable location.)

The Edmonton recruitment campaign will be supported by ‘campus street teams’ that will interact with students and ‘Ed Parties’ that will provide networking opportunities for students to see and learn more about Edmonton. The integrated campaign will also use other online social media popular with post-secondary students, effectively extending the reach of the initial campaign.

In short, any local employer with job ads on their website can benefit from this campaign — at no charge — by simply calling EEDC at 401-7687.

“We’re confident from our research that we’re targeting a job-hungry, skilled and mobile audience,” says Ron Gilbertson, president and CEO of Edmonton Economic Development Corp. “All regional employers are encouraged to join this campaign by posting compelling career opportunities.”

“We have a very positive story to tell about Edmonton’s advantages as the ideal place to begin a career, a story that will surprise many Toronto students,” said Mary Pat Barry, the City of Edmonton’s Communications Manager. “Our success in reaching Toronto students will be applied to upcoming recruitment and marketing initiatives.”

Media Contact:
Kenn Bur, Director of Communications
Edmonton Economic Development Corp.
Phone: (780) 917-7659 / E-mail: kbur@edmonton.com