Weatherhead School of Management
Making a Case for a Higher Advertising Investment
Employing “always-on” advertising campaigns has become necessary for business schools as the competition increases to attract students from a diminishing pool of graduate prospects. According to Eduventures’ Adult Prospect Research, the percentage of 25- to 44-year-old candidates in America who enroll in graduate programs has eroded from 8.4 percent to 6.5 percent over the last 10 years, and the pure number of individuals in this age category continues to drop. The question for most schools is what is the right spending level to balance enrollment goals with ROI? This was the question the Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management (WSOM) sought to answer when they engaged with us to perform a pilot media buy.
For the planning of the pilot, we met with faculty and staff to conduct a Smarter Marketing Playbook on all graduate programs to be included in the pilot. Key points of differentiation were identified, as well as the student personas for each program. In addition, the school’s geographic location was identified as an important factor in considering how the advertising campaign was executed. There are 11 business schools in the state of Ohio and three surrounding states that are among the top-ranked business schools in the country.
The three-month pilot garnered these strong results – justifying a full-phase advertising campaign:
- 530% Increase in Inquiries
- 44% Improvement in Submitted Applications
- 10:1 Expected Revenue to Digital Advertising Spend
