Waterloo is On It
The project
Waterloo's flagship brand campaign raises its profile among Canada's most influential decision-makers. The 2025 Waterloo is On It campaign responded to a world of climate anxiety, healthcare strain, and tech disruption with a clear, confident message: where there's a challenge, Waterloo is on it.
The experience we designed
The creative strategy applied a disciplined system of cohesive brand assets across every channel, driving memorability through a unified visual language, bold typography, distinctive colour and a clear narrative structure.
By rotating three distinct impact stories over four months, the campaign stayed fresh while consistently reinforcing a single, powerful brand idea.
Hero Creative
Creative in the wild
The thinking behind it
Waterloo is On It reframed Waterloo as an institution defined by action and momentum. The aim was to build awareness as a research and innovation leader, position Waterloo as an antidote to world angst, and showcase impact through credible stories.
With post-secondary advertising budgets under pressure, the Waterloo is On It media strategy focused on efficiency, precision and scale. A strategic mix of digital and traditional media maximized reach on a reduced budget, prioritizing premium national environments to reach influential audiences across Canada.
Year over year, the campaign sharpened creative, tightened media targeting, and curated timely stories in health, tech, and AI.
What changed because of it
-
+70 million brand impressions across Canada
-
198,500 engagements on digital channels
-
193,100 visitors to uwaterloo.ca/on-it
-
$77,000 in bonus ad space (airports, transit, OOH)
-
+22.5 million more digital impressions than the prior campaign — its most successful digital campaign to date
Year over year changes:
-
Cost per impressions down $0.27
-
Cost per click down $0.34
-
Click through rate up +0.21%
Why it worked
The campaign was deliberately optimized year over year across three core areas to drive stronger visibility, efficiency and relevance.
- Creative optimizations sharpened impact and recall
- Media optimizations focused on precision and efficiency
- Story optimizations ensured cultural and topical relevance