The university uncovered that many of its challenges and opportunities were market based, including a diverse range of conditions relative to local market demographics, university history, available offerings, locations, leading employers and environmental competition. The marketing tem wondered: would a targeted, localized approach favorably change brand perception while maintaining a suitable business impact and ROI?
The university CMO proposed implementing a test for a new targeted marketing strategy that focused on understanding local market opportunities via diagnostics that accommodated target opportunities, historical market and lead analysis, program availability and performance, as well as brand health within a competitive environment. The Visible World Conductor provided an efficient and flexible platform to execute the operation, using three base TV spots designed for local customization while retaining the look and feel of the corporate campaigns.
The results were remarkable. The university experienced solid gains across key brand attributes including the understanding of offers both online and local on-campus class as well as that it offers Bachelor’s degrees. Furthermore, all test markets experienced increases in lead generation (from 8-33%), and test markets that received more investment saw more significant lift in inquiry flow (with applications up 39-200% and enrollment up 44-156%).
