University of Wisconsin-Madison – Lot 2

Home Agency Insights University of Wisconsin-Madison – Lot 2

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We’ve hand-selected these case studies to show you our range and depth in nonprofit marketing and advertising. As you wade through, you will see that we’ve got the strategic, creative, and media chops to help the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Below you’ll find our samples for Lot. 2, Marketing Research and Insights.

Welcome

On this page, you’ll find the case studies we’ve selected especially for you. All of them showcase the talent, passion, and ingenuity we put into everything we do. Reach out if you have any questions!

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Personal Pathway™ campaign.

A student leans against the glass wall of a server room, running diagnostics on a laptop

American College of Financial Services

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American College of Financial Services

Home Work American College of Financial Services

The Challenge

The American College of Financial Services has always had industry-leading educational programs for financial professionals. The launch of Personal Pathway™ was giving them a top-level learning model too — but no one had ever heard of it or knew how it worked. The College partnered with idfive to ensure the rollout was worthy of the program.

Wall Street bull statue with motion blur

482%

YoY percentage enrollment increase, July 2019 — July 2020

The team really thought through the customer journey at every touchpoint. With that focus, we were able to tie together several elements to chauffer the user through the benefits of the Personal Pathway experience.

Samantha Eckels

Account Executive

Strategy

The Personal Pathway™ learning experience provides a lot of advantages. Students can learn on their own time and schedule, choose a structured or more customized path, access interactive texts and lesson reviews, and prepare like never before to pass the courses and exams required for two of the most valuable professional designations in the financial advisor field.

Communicating that many advantages required an expansive strategy. Working with The College, our team developed a customer journey that began with targeted online display and social media ads and then led prospects to multiple touchpoints designed to provide a fuller overview and increase interest. These touchpoints included campaign landing pages, emails, an online guide to the learning experience, and a sample lesson only accessible once prospects fill out an RFI. Within this, we also integrated messaging about introductory pricing, creating a customer journey in which each stage increased prospects’ understanding of the product and their desire to enroll.

Design

At its core, the Personal Pathway™ learning experience is about giving financial professionals more control — over their learning and, ultimately, over their career. The design accentuates this, using bold headlines and strong imagery to brand Personal Pathway™ as an experience that puts you in control of your future.

Content Strategy and Copywriting

While a sample lesson and an introductory pricing offer provided incentives for prospects to learn more, idfive’s copywriters had to provide the words that would seal the deal. In addition to the campaign headlines, the copywriters in close collaboration with The College’s marketing team wrote a series of copy-intensive assets ranging from an expansive e-book to an informational webpage to callouts that could be placed within The College’s existing website framework. In every instance, the copy leaned heavily on the promotion of the program’s key selling points while maintaining a consistently bold tone. The combination of hard, well-presented facts with a confident, spirited attitude branded Personal Pathway™ as a must-have learning experience for ambitious financial professionals.

Media

To ensure financial professionals knew about Personal Pathway™, idfive’s media team sought out placements that would hit the right market at the right time. We targeted financial professionals with online display ads as well as Facebook and LinkedIn image ads, lead-gen ads and even video ads. We followed-up with retargeting ads and further augmented the efforts with dynamic search ads that captured prospects actively seeking the kind of educational experience Personal Pathway™ provides.

Client Success

The Personal Pathway™ campaign generated an immediate response and strong results. Within a few days of the campaign’s launch, enrollments started coming in at an impressive pace. Additionally, the campaign helped advance The College’s brand, reinforcing the school’s position as a leader in delivering quality education for financial professionals.

53%

Email Open Rate

Chronicling 365 days of impact in public health.

Four nurses smile while standing in the vestibule of an African health care facility

JHSPH Yearlook

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JHSPH Yearlook

Home Work JHSPH Yearlook

The Challenge

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the largest school of public health in the world and the first institution of its kind. For 20 years, the School has held the #1 position in U.S.News & World Report’s annual ranking of the nation’s public health schools. More than 2,200 students from 81 nations attend the School, drawn by the breadth and depth of its education, research and practice. In a first-time communications initiative, School officials decided to produce an “annual report” to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2014 fiscal year. The idea was to feature successes across a broad spectrum, from groundbreaking research to high-profile conferences to faculty awards. The content—sourced from dozens of stories in a variety of formats—had to be packaged creatively in a consistent voice to engage professional and general audiences alike and capture the energy of a world-class institution.

The Solution

Research/Analysis
UX Design
Information Architecture
Graphic Design
Copywriting
Front-End and Back-End Development
CMS Integration

Awards

The project has received a Gold Award from both the American Advertising Federation and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Building a universal brand for astrophysics.

Deep space photograph displays a distant star cluster and nebula

Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

Home Work Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Challenge

Since its founding over half a century ago, the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian became one of the leading astronomy and astrophysics centers in the world. But brilliant research didn’t necessarily translate into a brand that told a clear story of who they are and how their discoveries continue to expand humanity’s knowledge of our universe.

Research

We began our engagement with CfA with a two-pronged approach, reviewing existing communications and interviewing some of their top researchers and leadership. To gain an outside view, we also interviewed research partners, funders, and advisory board members. We had two clear goals in mind: understand the CfA, and find out how they’re perceived by the world.

850+

Researchers and staff.

For a life-long space nerd like me, working with CfA was an amazing experience. It was such an incredible privilege to get to interview some of the leading astronomers and astrophysicists in the world and learn more about the discoveries CfA has made and continues to make every day. I know all of us at idfive are immensely proud of the fact that our work is helping CfA tell their story better so they can continue to expand humanity’s understanding of the universe.

Sean Carton

Chief Strategist

Strategy

Our research revealed two key data points: 1) The CfA is regarded as one of the world’s leading astrophysics organizations; but 2) nobody really understood their structure, and that misunderstanding often led to difficulties in securing funding or recruiting scientists. They were doing some of the most amazing science in the world, but outsiders were confused about who was doing it.

Branding

We realized that in order to tell the true story of CfA, their name had to change. We wanted it to communicate CfA’s preeminent position in astronomy and astrophysics while communicating the equity of Harvard’s and the Smithsonian’s contributions. The new name – The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian did exactly that, emphasizing science over structure.

Design

We wanted to create a visual presentation of the new name to reflect the CfA’s long commitment to science and collaborative discovery. The symbolic gradient of the logo is reminiscent of a stellar spectrum—a key tool of astronomy instantly recognizable by their external audiences—while the logo’s contemporary typography speaks to both today and tomorrow’s discoveries.

CFA RED

CFA VIOLET

Website

The redesigned CfA website, published in March 2021, features copy guided by updated messaging and a design informed by updated brand visuals. The website’s content strategy puts science first by prioritizing ongoing research via a “Big Questions” section, and highlighting research, people, and facilities within the navigation.

Conclusion

Through all of our work, idfive has helped the CfA navigate a complicated institutional environment to ultimately implement a clear, compelling, and consistent brand that speaks to both internal and external audiences. United and energized by the new brand and marketing, communications, and fundraising tools, the CfA can now focus on the incredible research and discoveries that lie ahead.

Expressing the wonder of space exploration.

Nighttime photo of the Milky Way visible over a mountainous horizon

Johns Hopkins APL Civil Space

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Johns Hopkins APL Civil Space

Home Work Johns Hopkins APL Civil Space

DESIGNING AND DEVELOPING A SPACE EXPLORATION WEBSITE AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Civil Space project needed a brand new website to communicate the magnitude and “cool factor” of their work — from defending the planet from asteroids to unraveling the mysteries of the universe — to multiple audiences. And they needed it in nine months. It was rocket science. Literally.

Check out the APL Civil Space website.

Going Boldly

Sure, idfive developers had created interactive maps before. But to meet the challenge of galaxy travel, they created a destination map of the universe — going boldly where no developers have gone before.

Number of templates, including an interactive galaxy map

Strategy

Following our tried-and-true script, an idfive team kicked off the project with our Discover360™ process. We spoke with scientists, engineers, management, marketers, and educators. [A side note: These are some awesome, inspiring folks, some of whom worked on the country’s first space program in the ’60s.] We surveyed a wide cross-section of potential site visitors. We geeked out on web analytics and content audits (not to mention interstellar space), and scoped out what others in the field are doing. Armed with all of that data, we were able to share with our partners a creative brief and strategic direction that would inform everything from site architecture to design. Our aha moment: The site needed to appeal to a wide range of audiences — from middle-school students to rocket scientists — without confusing the one or condescending to the other.

Then COVID-19 hit.

But the idfive team and our APL Civil Space partners refused to let a global pandemic get in the way of our momentum. We switched our brainstorming workshop to a virtual format and presented the first rounds of a proposed Information Architecture and wireframes. Following revisions and approvals, we moved to the design phase and presented three concepts. Elements from all three were incorporated into the final design.

To meet the tight timeline and maximize budget, our developers completed the front- and back-end work concurrently with the design phase, relishing challenges like building a map-of-the-galaxy app. Our copywriters made sure that the final copy would appeal to space novices and rocket scientists alike.

Design

The visuals needed to be as awe-inspiring and compelling as space itself. Our design “North Star,” as pointed out in the project creative brief: “Think of the first time you saw the night sky on a clear, moonless night — away from artificial light or interference.” One picture = 1,000 words.

Development

idfive developers took the challenge of engaging site visitors to a new level by creating a Drupal 8 widget with Augmented Reality and 3-D assets that delivers state-of-the-art space instruments to your screen. Or maybe you have an iOS and want to drop the New Horizons spacecraft on your kitchen counter.

Conclusion

The APL Civil Space website engages school children, rocket scientists, and everyone in between with a richly visual, highly interactive experience — one that piques curiosity, encourages further exploration, and induces wonder. Just like the night sky on a clear, moonless night.

Showcasing the depth of a lakeside leader.

Carthage College

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Carthage College

Home Work Carthage College

Using Informed Web Design to Showcase the Depth of a Liberal Arts Education

With its stunning location, market-focused academic offerings, and comprehensive career development program, Carthage College’s liberal arts education continues to evolve to meet changing needs. But many students and families don’t know that it’s an opportunity that’s within their reach.

Carthage needed a redesigned website that speaks boldly of its promise, achievements, and vision for the future.

Strategy

idfive’s comprehensive discovery phase—including a complete site audit and extensive stakeholder interviews—revealed that Carthage had a powerful story to tell. The College’s website had solid fundamentals in place, but definitely needed a refresh: a lot had happened at Carthage and in the world since the site was launched in 2016. To take the next step, we needed to:

Develop a unifying theme to tell the Carthage story more succinctly, effectively, and boldly
Challenge expectations of what a college website is
Take the website from good to great.

UX

As we worked collaboratively with the Carthage marketing and communications team, clear themes began to emerge that would inform and unify the site’s architecture, design, and content. Chief among these were the deep personal connections that students made at the College; the spirit of exploration and discovery that is instilled in the culture; and a uniquely beautiful lakefront setting, an hour’s drive from the vibrant urban centers of Chicago and Milwaukee.

Design

Balancing Carthage’s distinctive primary red with a secondary blue palette reinforces one of Carthage’s major differentiators: it’s distinctive Lake Michigan shoreline. Wave motifs, reflected both horizontally and vertically, continue the theme and connect with the hero image headline: Your Turn To Make Waves.

156

Total number of Carthage stakeholders engaged in the discovery process

“This project wouldn’t have been possible without the support and insight of the Carthage team. My only regret is not getting to see beautiful Lake Michigan in person.”

Andrew White

Director of User Experience and Information Design, idfive

Media Buying & Planning

Early campaign results attribute a 44% increase in enrollment applications in the first 4 months of the campaign compared to the previous period and 11% increase YOY.

44%

increase in apps received in the first 4 months

The Results

The early response from the Carthage community was overwhelmingly positive, as reflected in these Instagram posts:

“Lookin good” 😍 😉
“It looks awesome!”

More than that, however, the recruitment campaign is delivering a substantial boost in qualified applications.

There’s more where that came from. Explore our website, meet our team, and learn about idfive.

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