WashU Olin

WashU Olin is one of the premier, top-ranked business schools in the world. As with many organizations in 2020, WashU Olin had to take a look at their Leadership Perspectives event operating procedures and determine the best and safest approach for their intended audiences- potential MBA students and candidates. The Leadership Perspectives events are speaking engagements focused on a variety of leadership-oriented topics, hosted by some of the best and brightest leaders in the world.

In order to accommodate a new approach, the Leadership Perspectives events needed to go virtual. While in-person events offered a great way for speakers to interact with attendees, the virtual approach opened an entirely new channel to reach and engage with prospective students/attendees by catering relevant content directly to them.

Requiring a new way to market and promote the Leadership Perspectives event, G/L developed and created a series of YouTube video campaigns for each unique virtual speaking engagement. Utilizing behavioral and content targeting parameters, our YouTube video campaigns engaged with prospective MBA students with Google’s unique Tease, Amplify & Echo messaging approach, enabling us to tell a longer story in shorter pieces and reach only the most interested viewers. G/L concepted, developed scripts and created a series of :06 bumpers, :15 spots, :30 spots and long-format spots (1-2 minutes). All four campaigns were exceptionally effective and not only fostered a large attendance, but ultimately developed numerous leads for prospective MBA candidates. The highly targeted YouTube campaigns generated a 12.23% conversion to registration rate, ultimately accounting for 21% of the total number of attendees at the Leadership Perspectives speaking engagements.

All three campaigns (the fourth and final is in progress) have been highly effective and not only fostered a large attendance, but ultimately developed numerous leads for prospective MBA candidates.