LU will keep its I Think For Myself campaign alive

Lakehead University officials are still encouraging students to think for themselves.

The school has re-upped its I Think For Myself marketing campaign, an effort designed to draw students from the Greater Toronto Area to both its Thunder Bay and Orillia campuses.

University president Brian Stevenson on Wednesday said the idea behind the campaign is to promote Lakehead as an institution that promotes independent thinking, critical thought and creativity to potential students faced with plenty of southern Ontario choices for their post-secondary education.

"Last year it was a very successful campaign. It highlighted three of our alum. This year we have three other alumni highlighted, so students can see the kinds of lives and careers that they can have."

In 2009-10 Stevenson, who assumed his position in August, said the school focused on the humanities and the arts to show the school has strengths in those areas and that there are career possibilities for students who choose that path.

This year it’s science and engineering in the spotlight.

"They are doing very interesting work and we want to be able to highlight and show the kinds of things that you can do once you get a degree from Lakehead."

Stevenson said they wouldn’t have stuck with the campaign if it didn’t work. In the past the school has gone out on a limb, drawing particular attention to its Yale Schmale campaign that made a tongue-in-cheek comparison between Lakehead and the Ivy League.

Stevenson said the I Think For Myself campaign might be a little more muted, but has achieved results.

He added that about half the student body at Lakehead arrives at the school from out of town, in many cases having spent months agonizing about this phase of their education.

It’s never an easy decision, he said.

"You want to go to a place that has like-minded individuals and has alum that has had successful careers and career paths. The idea is that we’re trying to attract new students to come from Thunder Bay and the Northwest and the GTA and central Ontario and around the country," Stevenson said.

"We want to show them the type of education that Lakehead can provide."

The campaign uses a blend of traditional and new-media methods to get its message across. While transit signs and magazine ads have been staple methods from years gone by – and are still in vogue in 2010 – the school is also tacking non-traditional sources too.

Officials have adopted the use of Google AdWords as yet another way to target potential students.
"Advertising with AdWrods lets us reach prospective students at the precise moment when they are searching for programs and services related to university life," LU’s webmaster Tove Tonslien said.
The campaign runs through March 2011.