PORTFOLIO
Case Study
Client: HU University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht
Creative Business is a study programme that challenges the status quo and educates students for up-and-coming jobs. While internally they have a clear view of their brand purpose, externally, in the educational space, they were still striving to create awareness and communicate one message only. Every year they organise events during a similar period as every other study programme in the Netherlands and abroad. Future students and parents alike are pestered with information during this period. With an average attention span of eight seconds, it is challenging to stand out from the crowd. To achieve the best results, aligned with the programme’s KPIs, together we have collaborated over 4 overarching themes: strategy, branding, advertising, and social media.
STRATEGY
Strategy is power. Strategy is your business’ game plan.
Game on!
Challenge: Position the client as an industry leader by bringing forward its unique selling points.
Solution: The institution has an overarching strategy that serves as foundation. Internally, the programme is clear on what it can deliver, however, there are inconsistencies that translate externally and confuse the target audience. Thus, conducting market research gave insights into whether the study programme is in-demand or any changes should be made to the on-offer service. A thorough analysis of the competitors has been done, which lead to adopting the most prominent unique selling points, positioning the client ahead of the curve. The target audience has been researched, so their online behaviours can be understood by the client. Additional marketing strategies have been used to gather information about what was needed to communicate further (e.g., events, ads, social media), so the best results with the lowest budget are reached. Creating a brand’s strategy is usually the most complex challenge. However, it facilitates the entire execution of the plan that can and should generate results that are on par with the set KPIs.
Results: The client’s KPI for a well-designed strategy was at a mininum to stabilise the number of enrolled students at the beginning of each academic year. Best possible result envisioned was to rise the numbers by 5%. Important to take note is that the project started right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The expectation was for the numbers to significantly drop due to the situation. However, we have increased the study programme’s number by 14% in the first year, 22,6% by the second year, 9,3% third year, and we have finally stabilised the numbers in the fourth year. The growth is a clear result of a well-researched and executed strategy. The stabilisation was also desired as the study programme is rapidly reaching the maximum space to accommodate new students. However, if they would like to increase the numbers, then a new strategy would need to be defined- one that fits the new market trends and demands.
Branding
Branding is identity. Branding is trust. Branding is sales growth.
It all starts and ends with it.
Challenge: Design strong branding that generates awareness and remains top-of-mind to people that have been reached.
Focus: Social media and a series of events that embody the nature of the Creative Business study programme of the university.
Solution: The study programme is under the umbrella of a university that has a very well defined branding. However, some of the programme’s competitors are other programmes from the same university. The real challenge was to differentiate the client from everybody else, while following the overarching branding elements of the university. To stand out, we made use of the bold colours used in the logo combined with unconventional text. The simplicity gave a polished look to the entire study programme. Additionally, it was also cost-effective to recreate various formats of branding materials. For our events, we have built an interactive experience, where the future students are taken on a trip that encapsulates the four years of their studies in only one hour. The experience is filled with branded material, lecturers & students to answer to their questions, a study programme passport that is stamped once they pass through each part of the trip, etc.
Results: We have created remarkable promotional materials that have a similar look & feel, such as brochures, social media videos and pictures, gamified the experience, and created merch worn by our student ambassadors & select future students. The merch remains exclusive, creating desirability. This way, students are promoting the programme in an organic way. Once more, promotion is created at a minimum cost. 63% of the fully-enrolled students in the year 2023 say that the event was the number one reason to consider Creative Business as one of their options as a study programme, thanks to the consistent branding that remained top-of-mind and was later discussed within the family.
Boldly Branded Events
63% of the fully-enrolled students have confirmed that the boldly branded events were the number one reason to consider Creative Business as one of their options to study at
Advertising
Advertising is persuasion. Advertising brings temptation.
Let advertising make your brand desired!
Case Study
Client: HU University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht
Solution: Create a series of ads that bring awareness to the programme, where 20% of the viewers are converted to the next step of the funnel – consideration stage achieved through in-person and online events.
Results: Numbers talk! See below the great conversion that the advertisements brought and how Creative Business paid as little as 0.2€ per person to click on a link, whereas competitors paid on average 1.06€.
Average KPI’s Creative Business ad
Average KPI’s benchmark (competitors)
Influencer Marketing – Consideration Stage
Making use of this type of advertisement, provided the right channels and the right influencers are used, it can lead to great results.
“This is how we work at Creative Business” was a commissioned video, where one of the study programme’s students created a video of how her Creative Business experience looks like. Important to remember – it was 100% her honest opinion. The banger? She is an influencer with over 30K subscribers on YouTube and over 80K on Instagram and her target audience is pretty much the university’s target audience. Talk about reaching all the goals & beyond.
social media
Social media brings information. Social media enables connection.
Social media creates strong relationships.
Foster a sense of belonging – Advocacy
From our research, we understand that for our target audience a little attention goes a long way. All registered students received a bag filled with goodies, to jump start their academic year excited and in style. The bag was sent in the post, containing relevant information to their journey at Creative Business, a personal handwritten note, and some little treats such as colourful socks, branded stickers, chocolate and more.
The reason of sending the bag was twofold. Firstly, to grab their attention away from the screen and away from the competitors as mail has been proven to stay top of mind for people. Secondly, the contents of the bag were carefully crafted so the students would naturally want to share them with their friends or future classmates on Instagram, WhatsApp, or as word-of-mouth. This way we are making our future students advocates of the programme even before starting it, at a minimal cost.
These results are the embodiement of a well-executed strategy and well rounded customer journey. Simple, low-cost, yet affective; just the way we like it!
