the challenge.

For this series, Ignite – a student-run organization that represents students at Humber College and the University of Guelph-Humber—wanted to inform students about the no-cost services they provide. But they wanted to do it in a way that students actually found engaging and fun and wanted to avoid anything that looked like a traditional ad.

the Q-lution.

Use (and creatively integrate with) the platform your audience is already on.

Students on campus can typically be found on their phones doing… school and assignments right? Well that, and a bit (okay a lot) of Instagram surfing. That’s why we designed an Instagram-centred social campaign and developed a series of scripted scenarios that hinged on Guelph-Humber’s frosh theme of “Choose your Own Adventure”.

For each service, the videos begin with a scenario depicting an everyday challenge a typical student might face. The storylines then integrate with Instagram Story Polls feature on the Instagram platform. With the poll, the audience is given the opportunity to “vote” on how the storyline will end, with both options highlighting the happy ending that could have been reached using an Ignite service. AND to be budget efficient, we cast real students; helping add to the authenticity of the scenarios and campaign.

the secret sauce.

Adapt to your channel.

Instagram is full of content, but Stories are the most commonly viewed and promotes the best engagement. Instagram Stories require content that is wacky and eye-catching, to keep viewers from quickly swiping on. That’s why we needed to ensure the videos integrated into the channel perfectly, creatively using tools that the audience was already using on Instagram.

The end result is a series of entertaining and informative videos on all the ways Ignite can help. (And for our volunteer talent, possibly the start to some successful acting careers?)