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The University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute had the ambition to become the Silicon Valley of the food industry and to win a highly competitive $77-million grant, but it lacked a communications and marketing strategy to get there.

SJC’s Strategic Content Labs (SCL), devised and executed a top-to-bottom communications and digital and social content strategy, designed to position the Institute as the winning candidate for the grant. We created and curated custom content – including narrative stories, infographics, videos and podcasts – and conducted seminars to educate university staff on social media strategies and methodologies. Services included strategic consulting, brand design, web design and development, content management, content creation and staff training.

The Results?

The Food Institute received a total of $117-million as a direct result of the campaign. This consisted of the original $77-million grant, a $20-million donation from the Arrell family – the largest single gift in the University’s history – and an additional matching grant of $20-million.