×RBC × IKEA · INTL STUDENTReach the international student inside the elevator on the way to class.Ontario · British Columbia · Greater Montreal · 4-week DOOH + paired digital re-targeting
Apartment-elevator screens are the only ad surface that delivers ~24 daily exposures inside the buildings international students live in, captured at the moment they're commuting to campus, opening the fridge, walking out for groceries — the IKEA visit they're already planning. We've ranked 596 student-relevant residential properties across ON / BC / Montreal against StatsCan census variables for South Asian and East Asian visible-minority %, age 20–24 %, and non-permanent resident % (the closest census proxy for international student visa holders). The recommended buy is the highest-indexing 60.
A campaign that rewards where life is happening for the new arrival.
RBC is offering an IKEA gift with international-student bank account sign-up. The audience is A18–24, new to country, in the early-decision window for both housing and a bank — with a focus on South Asian and East Asian students in Ontario, BC, and Montreal. The ask: place the offer in DOOH where they live, study, and commute, with a digital extension layered on the same audience.
The catchments of these 60 buildings over-index hard on every variable that matters.
Every property's catchment was scored against StatsCan 2021 Census variables — visible-minority breakdowns, age cohort %, non-permanent resident %, recent-immigrant %. The recommended Tier 2 buy ranks in the top decile on all three.
3.8×
South Asian + Chinese + Korean + Japanese + Southeast Asian + Filipino visible minority concentration in the building catchment. Concentrated in Waterloo, Scarborough, North York, Markham, East York, Burnaby, Richmond, downtown Montreal.
5.8×
Non-permanent residents — the closest census proxy for international student visa holders, plus work permits and refugee claimants. The 5.8× index means one in seven adults in catchment, vs one in forty nationally.
2.6×
The exact undergrad / early-graduate window. Not just student-leaning — student-saturated. Buildings adjacent to UWaterloo, McGill / Concordia, TMU/Ryerson, SFU, UBC drove the top ranks.
Three tiers. Re-targeting bundled in.
Each tier is a complete package: residential-elevator DOOH at $8 net CPM (off $10.50 rate card) plus a paired digital re-targeting layer that captures device IDs at OOH point-of-exposure and re-serves the same audience on mobile and CTV. Pick a tier; nothing else to negotiate.
The 30 highest-index buildings.
- 30 buildings · 41 screens · ~2.7M impressions
- RT: 625k mobile/CTV imps · 4× freq cap
- Pure plays: Waterloo · McGill/Concordia · TMU · SFU/UBC corridors
- Highest concentration of every audience signal
The 60 highest-index buildings.
- 60 buildings · 75 screens · 8.85M impressions
- RT: 1.5M mobile/CTV imps · 8× freq cap
- Adds: Scarborough · North York · Markham · East York · Burnaby · Richmond · Côte-des-Neiges
- Catchment averages 3.8× S/E Asian, 5.8× NPR, 2.6× age 20–24 index
- Best balance of reach × audience purity for a 4-wk flight
The 100 highest-index buildings.
- 100 buildings · 121 screens · 13.9M impressions
- RT: 2.5M mobile/CTV imps · 12× freq cap, weekly pool refresh
- Full corridor coverage: adds Brampton, Mississauga, Coquitlam, London, Abbotsford across all three markets
- Conversion-tier RT: full-funnel awareness → consideration → bank sign-up
The buy sits inside the catchment of 20+ post-secondary institutions.
Each building was selected because its catchment over-indexed on the audience — the side effect is that those catchments are the streets and apartments next to Canada's most international-student-saturated campuses. Every major institution with 5,000+ international students is represented.
Ontario15+ institutions
- University of Waterloo · Wilfrid Laurier UniversityPhillip Square (Fergus / Hespeler / Blair) · 258 Sunview · Sage 6
- University of Toronto (St. George · Scarborough · Mississauga)One Bloor · Stanley Condo · 555/561/565 Sherbourne · 40 Meadowglen · Scarborough Town Centre
- Toronto Metropolitan University (Ryerson) · OCADNeill-Wycik · Sherbourne corridor
- York University · Seneca · CentennialSoul Fairview · Chicago Residences · Hullmark Centre
- Ontario Tech · Trent DurhamUniversity Towns DSCC-323 (Oshawa)
- Sheridan · Humber · George Brown · Conestoga · Algoma Brampton · McMaster (Mississauga / Brampton corridor)
British Columbia5 institutions
- Simon Fraser University (Burnaby · Surrey · Vancouver)The Hub at UniverCity · Sovereign · SFU corridor
- University of British Columbia (Point Grey · Robson)Conference Plaza
- BCITBurnaby corridor
- Kwantlen Polytechnic UniversityEMPORIO (Richmond) · The Regency
- Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Greater Montreal4 institutions
- McGill UniversityMackay corridor (1420 / 1436 / 1444 Crescent / Mackay) · 2150 St Marc · 1160 Mackay
- Concordia UniversityLA CITADELLE · Luna · Mackay / Crescent corridor
- UQAMPlateau corridor
- HEC Montréal · Polytechnique · ÉTS
The screen is in all three places at once.
RBC's brief asks for housing, campus, and commute. Residential-elevator DOOH covers all three in a single placement.
Where they sleep, eat, and unpack the IKEA box.
Every property in the buy is an apartment building (rental or condo) or university residence. ~24 elevator exposures per resident per day — captive, ad-blocker-proof, no skip. The IKEA furniture-offer creative lives at the literal point of decision: the move-in.
Inside the catchment of the campus.
Top-30 buildings are within walking or short-transit distance of UWaterloo, McGill/Concordia, TMU, U of T, SFU, UBC. The audience is reached on every grocery run, laundry trip, package delivery — without buying any campus inventory directly.
The corridor between residence and campus.
Sherbourne (TMU/U of T) · Mackay-Crescent (McGill/Concordia) · Hespeler-Sunview (Waterloo) · UniverCity (SFU): the recommended buy concentrates on commute corridors connecting the densest student housing to campus. Re-targeting layer extends the message to mobile during transit.
OOH captures the device. Mobile + CTV close the loop.
VI's screen network is integrated with Mobilewalla / Adsquare device-graph: every screen's lat-lon × dwell-time captures device IDs of people exposed. Those devices are then re-served the IKEA-offer creative on mobile / CTV via the DSP. The OOH and the digital extension hit the same audience — not a new one.
Exposure
International student rides the elevator. Sees the IKEA-offer creative on the VI screen.
Capture
VI captures device IDs at the screen via Mobilewalla / Adsquare partnership. Audience is now portable.
Re-serve
Same student gets the same offer on Instagram / TikTok / CTV — at the moment they're researching apartment furniture.
One window owns this audience. Late August to late September.
Three flight options inside the brief's window. The primary recommendation aligns the flight to the international-student arrival surge and the IKEA back-to-school furniture peak.
Captures the arrival surge plus the first three weeks of fall semester. International students setting up housing and banking; IKEA back-to-school furniture window peaking. Highest conversion likelihood for the offer.
Post-orientation. Students settling in, considering longer-term banking and furniture decisions. Lower urgency, deeper consideration.
Early arrivals — graduate programs, summer English programs, students with August lease starts. Lower volume but less competition for share of voice.
One tier. One flight. One IKEA gift in every elevator the audience already lives in.
Confirm tier and flight window and the campaign is in market in 14 business days. Detailed building-level specs, impressions, lat/lon, and net costing available on request.