From the Nominator

In June 2024, Concordia University in Montréal, Québec, Canada launched a year-and-a-half-long marketing and communication initiative to mark its 50th anniversary. Our gold and garnet anniversary offered our university a once-in-a-century opportunity to drive community engagement, student recruitment, and build donor momentum for the last stretch of our most ambitious fundraiser: The Campaign for Concordia: Next-Gen Now. The scope of our 50th anniversary campaign is vast and includes multiple projects that conclude on Sept. 25, 2025. The launch phase occurred from June to Sept. 2024. It’s important to note that Concordia’s 50th anniversary is primarily a marketing exercise rather than an event-based celebration. Our overarching goals for our 50th were to bolster Concordia’s reputation, foster a sense of pride among our community, and drive engagement. Objectives included to develop an eye-catching anniversary brand with a visual identity, logo, and slogan, launch a 50th anniversary microsite and flagship anniversary video, create a signage campaign with visibility on campus and in the city of Montréal, create an organic social media campaign, and partner with university unities to rebrand all key events with the 50th anniversary brand. Our 50th anniversary branding exercise and rollout significantly exceeded our goals. As demonstrated by qualitative and quantitative outcomes, we created a distinct and tremendously popular 50th brand that increased our visibility and community engagement. The 50th brand and campaign also provided a much-needed morale boost during a challenging year for higher education, particularly for English universities in Québec.

From the Judges

Concordia’s 50th anniversary campaign is a standout example of thoughtful, in-house creativity that honors its 1970s roots and multicultural community with a simple yet impactful logo. The highly collaborative effort produced cohesive materials used widely across platforms, backed by clear, impressive metrics that demonstrate real engagement and return on investment. This well-executed campaign not only celebrates the university’s history but sets a great standard for data-driven branding initiatives.