Nestled against the White Mountains of Maine, Gould Academy offers students
a uniquely experiential education.
Small in size and offering an unparalleled education, Gould Academy knows that digital outreach is the way to outflank better-known New England
schools. They turned to BCS Impact to create a series of campaigns to capture the interest of prospective students from all over the world.
Exhaustive research was key to discovering the right audiences (parents or students?) channels (Facebook, Instagram, Google or all of the above?) and messaging (how to best speak to junior high students and their parents?). We dove headlong into data and insights, leaving no stone unturned; the result was a comprehensive discovery and strategic roadmap—including audience personas—that guides our decision-making process to this day.
Our research revealed several key insights that helped us construct both the messaging and focus of the campaigns.
While parents played a crucial role in gathering data and guiding their child’s education, the student was the primary, decision-maker in terms of the schools to which they would apply.
In addition to having one of the best on-snow programs in the world, Gould also provided an “experiential” education—an offering that would help us appeal to a wider subset of prospective students.
Students that visited the Gould Campus matriculated at a much higher rate than those that didn’t. We thus focused on sending as many leads as possible to Gould’s admissions team, prepped for an on-site visit.
Our initial campaigns focused on gaining the school as much exposure as possible versus competing schools. We began with a strong paid advertising push on Facebook and Instagram, focusing on what Gould was best known for: competitive on-snow sports training.
In addition to on-snow, Gould boasted amazing experiential course offerings where students could learn about particular subjects in a hands-on way. Want to learn Spanish? Here, you'll travel to Spain. Oceanography? Prepare to board a sub. These atypical experiences were hidden gems we wanted to put front and center.
While static ads and graphics were highly successful in building both exposure and response, video content helped us to showcase a broad range of the school’s offerings, and proved extremely effective in re-engaging audiences that had seen other campaign content.
We created and tested a variety of ads and organic content across Instagram and Facebook, monitoring and optimizing results closely and sending visitors to one of two website landing pages—one tailored to on-snow students, and one for students interested in “experiential” education:
Drop us a line. We'll discuss your goals and start you on the path to building the influence and infrastructure your mission deserves.
