University of Wisconsin-Madison – Lot 4

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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. 4, Digital and Traditional Media Advertising & Placement.

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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Carthage College

Showcasing the depth of a lakeside leader.

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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.

I chose Carthage because it has amazing scholarships for foreign language, impressive professors who work closely with their students, and the lake. Looking out your dorm window and seeing sailboats on Lake Michigan can't be beat. Caroline Cardamone 2021

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.

https://idfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Social-Section-01.jpg

A smiling businesswoman is applauded by her colleagues during a meeting

Drexel University LeBow College of Business Campaign

Helping business students find opportunity.

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Drexel University LeBow College of Business Campaign

The Challenge

To connect with a new generation of business students, the Drexel LeBow College of Business partnered with idfive to guide the school’s marketing efforts. This included refining Drexel LeBow’s brand and developing an advertising campaign that would differentiate them in the market. The school knew the prospects it wanted to reach — ambitious, entrepreneurial, and diverse students who would thrive in an experiential learning environment. Working against the school: fierce competition within the region, and nationwide trends showing declines in business school enrollment.

The Solution

Through intensive audience and competitor research as well as close collaboration with stakeholders throughout the school, idfive and Drexel LeBow College uncovered key areas to refine and differentiate the brand. idfive anchored the school’s voice to the guiding principles of Drexel University while highlighting the ambitious, untraditional, and diverse student body. Tying it all together: a great American city.

Much like Drexel LeBow students, the city of Philadelphia has an entrepreneurial, ambitious spirit. It’s where the ultimate startup — the United State of America — was founded. And it continues to produce Fortune 500 companies and industry disruptors alike. This connection is the backbone of the integrated recruitment campaign: “The Greatest Success Stories Start in Philadelphia”.

Through digital display ads, out-of-home, print advertisements, and social media, the campaign promotes Drexel LeBow’s greatest strengths through stories of its students and alumni. The advertisements feature cinematic photography and narrative copywriting, breaking the clichés of traditional business school advertisements and motivating prospects with relatable, inspiring content.

Bloomsburg professor and student sit in front of monitors at an on-campus media editing station

Bloomsburg University Recruitment Marketing

Elevating awareness in an uphill market.

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Bloomsburg University Recruitment Marketing

The Challenge

Bloomsburg University has always been focused on student access and success, and a rebranding effort in 2019 helped to sharpen that focus. But then BU needed to enhance brand awareness, support enrollment growth, and communicate its value proposition in the crowded Mid-Atlantic higher education landscape to multiple audiences—undergraduates, transfer students, graduate students, and parents.

Strategy

Partnering with Bloomsburg’s marketing and admissions teams, idfive developed an integrated, multiyear campaign strategy, informed by audience demographic data developed during the University’s rebranding. The objective: to drive site traffic, engagement, and CTRs to the BU Admissions microsite and position “Bloom” as a top choice for prospective students and their families.

While the FY20 campaign focused primarily on brand awareness, the FY21 campaign capitalized on the increased brand awareness to deliver a hybrid brand and lead generation approach. Among the tactics added were Facebook and Instagram retargeting and creative A/B testing across the Google Search, Facebook, and Instagram campaigns.

Media

With ongoing active account management, and using the information gained from the previous years’ campaigns, the idfive media team further refined audience segmentation in FY21 by audience type and location.

Facebook social campaigns and Instagram story placements focused on driving engagement with two main strategies: prospecting and remarketing.

Prospecting ads targeted parents, students and curated high school lists, as well as newly implemented Facebook/Instagram page and website visitors lists created with existing lead and inquiry contacts.
Remarketing ads targeted recent Facebook/Instagram page and website visitors of the BU page and lookalike audiences created based on this list of users.

259

Percent above Google Search industry benchmark, Aug. to Oct. 2021

It’s been rewarding to partner with the Bloomsburg team and push the media plan to deliver more each year as capabilities in attribution and tracking have expanded.

Erinn Hesse

Associate Director of Client Services

Results

Year-over-year CTR performance, FY20-FY21:

Facebook ↑24.33%
Instagram ↑ 39.71%
Google Search ↑ 166.12%
Google Remarketing ↑ 915.24%

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

American College of Financial Services

Personal Pathway™ campaign.

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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

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