GRE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

TitleGRE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
BrandEDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
Product / ServiceEDUCATIONAL TESTING AND ASSESSMENT
CategoryC01. Best Integrated Campaign Led by PR
EntrantTHE PRACTICE Delhi, INDIA
PR Agency THE PRACTICE Delhi, INDIA
Entrant Company THE PRACTICE Delhi, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Radhika Vyas The Practice Account Executive
Suhas Tadas The Practice Account Executive
Rejoy Lean The Practice Senior Account Executive
Sameer Khair The Practice Senior Account Executive
Geraldine De Brass The Practice Account Manager
Abhijit Kaur The Practice Vertical Lead - Consumer
Vivek Rana The Practice Principal

The Campaign

Although knowledge of the GRE revised General Test exists in India, the exact comprehension of applicability, acceptance and advantages of the test still remains slightly hazy. Also through interactions with different stakeholder groups – students, principals, and study abroad agents -we ascertained that while the students in India were well aware of the applicability of GRE for engineering courses, they were still reluctant and unsure about the recognition of the GRE test for MBA programs. Hence the objective was to increase awareness on applicability and acceptance of the GRE scores for both Engineering and MBA programs - thereby providing more opportunities and increasing GRE test taker volumes in India. The focus was on creating opportunities to meet the target audience face-to-face across the length and breadth of the country and highlight the potential undiscovered advantages that the GRE test had for them. The strategy was to combine focused PR, direct stakeholder activities and OOH activities to create visibility for GRE among the target audience. The strategy was executed through a spread of College Student Campaign Sessions, Video Campaign at student hang outs, Interactive Radio Shows, OOH Advertising, Counselor Outreach Program and Mobile outreach. As a result of the direct outreach to over 200 million stakeholders across 10 metros contributed to an increase in GRE registrations by 30 per cent from the previous year in India. Such was the success of integrated PR cum marketing campaign in 2012 that ETS-GRE has signed up for a larger campaign in 2013, currently underway.

The Brief

The goal was to increase the GRE test taker volumes in India with a two pronged strategy; to focus on the dual applicability as well as the superior acceptance of the GRE revised General Test through the integrated campaign across India. It is common knowledge that GRE has been applicable for engineering programs. However, this applicability of GRE has recently expanded and improved to include MBA programs as well. This dual applicability of the test, being the key advantage for test-takers was the focus of our campaign.

Results

The PRactice campaign reached over 200 million stakeholders directly over the three month period September – November 2012. With GRE volumes in 2012 totaling more than 655,000 worldwide, registrations in India for the GRE revised General Test rose by 30% from the 2011-2012. India continues to be placed in the top three countries for GRE registrations among the USA and China. Growth figures for GRE in India: 2010: 47,276 2011: 65,337 2012: 84,938 Media Reach: 24,527,352 Says David Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Higher Education division at ETS, “While early 2012 registrations for the GRE® revised General Test were slow, once we hit the August-December peak testing period, registrations began to climb, exceeding expectations for that period,” Such was the success of the integrated PR cum marketing campaign in 2012 that ETS-GRE has signed up for a larger campaign in 2013, currently underway.

Execution

The Campaign was launched in such a way that recent announcements like drop in price of the test in India were interwoven into the campaign. The timing was such that added momentum would be created at a time when students usually rush to take the test. College Campaign: Interactive sessions at 4 top colleges in metros reaching 4,000 students Radio Shows: “The GRE Show” 16 weekend live on-air Q&A sessions across 4 metros reaching 10.45 million listeners - 30 key queries answered Counselor Outreach: 500 top counselors and 50,000 students in ten cities targeted Bus Advertising: Buses in top four metros reaching 617,500,000 people Delhi Metro Advertising: High visibility messaging visible to 1.06 million travelers Video: Played at 2000 popular eateries across India viewed by 186,000,000 youth over one month SMS Blast: Text messages sent to 150,000 students Media Alerts: Features in tier II and III cities reaching 24,527,352 people

The Situation

The Indian student population is extremely tech savvy, making independent decisions and gaining much of their information online, so the challenge is reaching out to them through traditional PR methods. In this case, the client objective was to sustain the existing test-taker numbers for the revised GRE test, while increasing volumes by capturing management entrants. Although knowledge of the GRE revised General Test exists in India, the exact comprehension of applicability, acceptance and advantages of the test still remains slightly hazy, especially amongst the target audience in Tier II and III cities.

The Strategy

The focus of GRE 2012 integrated campaign was on creating opportunities to meet the target audience face-to-face across the length and breadth of the country and highlight the potential undiscovered advantages that the GRE test had for them. Our campaign was created as an amalgamation of direct media activities in combination with various high visibility on-ground activities targeting the key stakeholders; planned and executed on a one-on-one level, so that we could interact face-to-face with the youth thus capturing their attention along with gaining their interest and creating a call-for-action. Held between September and November 2012, the PR and Marketing programs were synched in a way that local media coverage was leveraged out of marketing activities such as the Radio shows and College Student meets too