New Co-Creative Director Lisa McCoy Helps Transcend3 Achieve Cultural Balance in Campaign for Lycee Francais de Toronto
The Transcend3 team is pleased to announce the addition of Lisa McCoy as co-creative director. The Toronto-based communications agency is excited to benefit from the breadth of knowledge about the English Canadian market she brings. McCoy has already put her talents on display in helping develop the agency’s new campaign for Lycée Francais de Toronto. With McCoy on board, the agency’s unique bilingual and tri-cultural background in one senior creative team — boasting a deep and ongoing knowledge of English Canada, Quebec and France — has been strengthened even more.
“It is the only French school in Toronto that’s distinctively French whilst proudly Canadian,” said Boualem Maizia, the new Lycée Francais de Toronto Headmaster, who just arrived from the New York City and Houston campuses. “Such a unique school needed a unique agency partner and we found that with Transcend3, their bilingual tri-cultural background was a crucial component in crafting a great campaign for us as it is a perfect fit with our mandate.”
The school combines the rigour of the academic system from France with the Canadian values of a holistic 'whole child' education.
The school combines the rigour of the academic system from France with the Canadian values of a holistic 'whole child' education.
Transcend3’s job was to understand the DNA of the brand in France, and its cultural and strategic relevance in the private school/education category in Ontario and Canada. With Tran and McCoy’s powers combined, Transcend3 was more effective than ever in delivering on its strategic approach in developing a complete brand refresh for the client— getting all three relevant cultures (English Canadian, French Canadian and French) intrinsically involved from the start. To that end, Transcend3 took a three-pronged approach: strategic, including research, cultural segmentation of the target, competitive review, mapping, positioning statement and brand pyramid; design, consisting of a new visual identity, logo, signage and brand guidelines; and advertising, encompassing tagline development, brochures, a print campaign, an original photo shoot featuring real LFT students by photographer Tom Feiler, website creative direction and parent’s video testimonials.
“The LFT campaign perfectly characterizes the Transcend3 approach in that it’s built on a differentiating and ownable positioning, and the work is consistent across all mediums and speaks to all three cultures,” said Tran. “With the addition of Lisa to the team, we’ve achieved an even more heightened level of cultural sensitivity and balance that will help us to drive our value proposition even further for this client, other national brands as well as brands arriving from France to Canada.”
Transcend3 is the only Toronto-based communications agency with co-creative directors boasting a completely bilingual and tri-cultural background, creating compelling work in both English and French, in Toronto, Montreal and Paris.
They marry strategy, design and advertising with ongoing cross cultural expertise. Their raison d’être is simple: to partner with their clients to create cultural impact and growth.
