Local Success Stories
Yahoo!
Newspaper Consortium
YAHOO! CONFIDENTIAL
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Education
YAHOO! CONFIDENTIAL
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Advertiser Local Success Stories
Education
• Liberty University (Lynchburg News and Advance)
• Rock Valley Community College (Register Star Media)
• Carnegie Mellon University (Bay Area News Group)
• Ave Marie University (Naples Daily News)
• The College of Saint Rose (Times Union)
YAHOO! CONFIDENTIAL
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Education – Multi DMA
Client: Liberty University
Category: Education
Total $: $93,600 (YTD: $130,000)
Yahoo! $: $79,000
DMAs: Roanoke/Lynchburg, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, Jacksonville, Norfolk, Charlotte,
Houston, San Antonio, Tampa, Philadelphia, Lubbock, Knoxville, Greenville-Spartanburg, Tulsa
Campaign Length: 12 Months
Campaign Start Date: September 3, 2010
2009 Spend: $0
Key Considerations by Client:
• The ability to target the 10 “hot spots” for Liberty University Online degree program to increase enrollment in these already
proven areas.
• The client took into consideration the ability to easily reach their feeder schools and areas, cost effectiveness, ease of
execution, results, and consultative collaboration.
Client Objections & Resolutions
• Client was upset with follow-up and fulfillment from an earlier campaign and was not sure that it had “moved the needle.”
They knew we could deliver the local area but were initially skeptical as to whether we could assist them on a larger scale. Our
resolution was a multi-step process where we helped show that the earlier campaign had done its job, both in views and in
clicks.
• Second, we developed results for their top feeder areas, more than 22 DMAs across the country. We then assimilated the
appropriate newspaper web-sites, television web-sites and Yahoo! DMAs to build a very competitive and effective CPM that
resulted in 1.1MM impressions of the 728x90 ad. To seal the deal, our digital director developed a weekly campaign results
form. For September, before the new Yahoo! campaign began, the weekly recap summarized impressions, clicks and CTRs for
two different ads, one built by MG and one by LU. The client likes the MG ad better and it is outperforming by 25%.
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Education – Multi DMA
Campaign Makeup
Client bought several different combinations of ROY + Custom-created geo zones
+ Age and Gender
Client Feedback
Wendy (our LU contact) has been “blown away” by our responsiveness, our
willingness to “test” creative campaigns and the weekly analysis currently
being provided each Friday. She also said that she is seeing results on their website tracker systems. She is making a market visit and initiated a lunch to meet
everyone and thank us for our hard work developing a symbiotic partnership.
Key Takeaway:
The best opportunities lie with our largest customers where we have strong
relationships. By employing all the vast resources we have, including Yahoo,
broadcast, newspaper, local.com, creative services and hands-on consultative
selling, we can develop compelling recommendations that are client-focused
and deliver results far beyond what we use to be able to provide
* Creative samples are examples of previous campaign artwork!
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Education – Multi DMA
Client: Rock Valley Community College
Category: Life Stages/Education/Continuing Ed
Total $: $70,000
Yahoo! $: $31,813
RRSTAR.com: $3,214
ROP/Rockford Woman Magazine: $35000
DMAs: Winnebago and Boone Counties
Campaign Length: 12 months
Campaign Start Date: August 1, 2010
YoY Total Spend: $23,00
Media Mix/ Current Buy vs. Historical
This advertiser has historically ran ROP, Rockford Woman magazine, and Home page Big Box. With this program we added audience
targeting on rrstar.com and Yahoo. Adding over $23,000 in incremental spending. Their current spending is as follows, 5o%
ROP/Rockford Woman magazine to 50% online.
Upgrade to existing client
This client has always seen the value of advertising in our core products however, with the addition of audience targeting they
saw the benefit of “no waste” advertising. This enabled them to get their message in front of the best prospects who were
looking to further their education.
Sales Cycle
Being a community college, they have always been fairly consistent. They do tend to spend more before their enrollment periods.
Client’s Advertising Objective
• To reach the online consumer looking for information on continuing their education. With the current unemployment rates in
Winnebago and Boone counties being number one and number two in the state, they saw this as a great opportunity.
Products Purchased:
• BT segments: Life Stages/Education/Continuing and Adult Education, ROY
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Education – Multi DMA
Sales Pitch Strategy
• Deliver their message to the right prospect at the right time while eliminating
the waste by targeting the Life Stages/Education/Continuing Ed category. Giving
them 100% SOV on our local site and 67% SOV on Yahoo in Winnebago and
Boone counties.
Objections that were overcome
• They were concerned with the increase to their budget and also did not have
a clear understanding of what audience targeting was and what it could deliver.
After walking them through the process and comparing our strategy to their
radio campaign, they shifted radio dollars to make this program fit into their
budget.
Customer Expectations vs. Campaign Performance
• Client is very happy with the performance thus far. To date the campaign has
delivered a CTR of .15
Describe Optimization Tactics or Renewal Strategies
• We have had fresh creative to promote research surveys, fill open classes, and
brand Rock valley Community College as “the” place for more opportunities
and more choices, at an affordable price.
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Education – San Francisco
Client: Carnegie Mellon University
Category: Education
Total $: $36,000
Yahoo! $: $16,500
DMA: San Francisco
Campaign Length: 8 months
Campaign Start Date: October 2010
Prospect Identification?
• Previous Advertising Partner
Sales Cycle?
• Educate client on NP Digital and Yahoo capabilities focusing in on geo/behavioral targeting. Expand beyond email blast
interests and test Yahoo BT. Encouraged narrow Geo/BT targeting, increased audience reach, increased exposure, and increased
user engagement – resulting in more info session attendance.
Client’s Advertising Objective?
• Increase info session attendance and enrollment.
Products Purchased:
• Education BT
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Education – San Francisco
Objections that were overcome?
• Client was only interested in email blast opportunities. Previous banner
campaigns did not meet expectations.
Customer Expectations vs. Campaign Performance?
Client had low expectations due to previous campaign failure. However,
improved banner campaign provided better audience targeting, increased
exposure/reach, and more user engagement – resulting in more website traffic
and info session attendance.
Describe Optimization Tactics or Renewal Strategies:
• Campaign was monitored and optimized on an on going basis. Tested different
BT categories and optimized to best performing placements. Improved results
helped secure long term commitment and exclusive media partner.
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Education – Multi DMA
Client: Ave Maria University
Category: Education
Total $: $75,000
Yahoo! $: $42,000
Campaign Length: 12 months
Campaign Start Date: 10/1/10 (Yahoo mid-October)
Prospect Identification?
• This client has been a sporadic print and newspaper.com advertiser that we had identified as having a much larger potential.
Sales Cycle?
• This was an extensive sales cycle; that lasted nearly 6 months from initial CNA to close based on revised budgets, change of
intended goals of campaign, etc…
Client’s Advertising Objective?
• The goal of the campaign is to reach potential students in high-percentage Catholic communities that were identified by the
University and increase the number of qualified applicants and enrollments from those areas.
Sales Pitch Strategy?
• The goal was to have one media partner that could target effectively and meet their objectives.
• It was important to include aspects that focused on extending the reach outside the market as well as local print regarding
events, seminars and speakers that they have at their campus.
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Education – Multi DMA
Objections that were overcome?
Their main objections were staffing, budget, creative design and reporting. These
were the 4 highest priority concerns that we answered throughout the sales cycle.
Customer Expectations vs. Campaign Performance?
The campaign has only partly launched to this point; Yahoo display started in midOctober. The expectation is to drive potential students and their families to the Ave
Maria University website and increase applications from the areas that we are
targeting.
Describe Optimization Tactics or Renewal Strategies:
The campaign had a mid-October 2010 launch. We will closely monitor
performance across the various DMA’s, adjust the budget to higher performing
markets and add or delete markets as needed. We have several creatives to use as
well to determine the right message for this multi-DMA campaign.
Words From The Wise…
“We uncovered the unique opportunity of this school wanting to increase their applicants and enrollment from outside the area.
The creative and management of the campaign was a concern as they have a very limited staff to execute this campaign; we sold
the benefit of one local point of contact, our campaign specialists and great creative capability as an extension of their
resources. Within creative, it was a goal that this ad not be lumped in as a typical, online University ad- this is a local University
in Southwest Florida. It was important to make that clear.”
- DAVE CUDDIHY, Advertising Manager Naples Daily News
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Education – Multi DMA
Client: The College of Saint Rose
Category: Education
Total $: $84,360
Yahoo! $: $67,300
DMAs: Albany and New York City
Campaign Length: 12 months
Campaign Start Date: September 1, 2010
Prospect Identification?
• Current timesunion.com and print advertiser. They were managing their own SEM campaigns outside the Albany DMA.
Sales Cycle?
• Worked with client on answering questions regarding the Yahoo! network and targeting capabilities. Within two months we
built the customer’s confidence in the Yahoo! product so she could educate and sell her board.
Client’s Advertising Objective?
• Needed to efficiently use their budget to get the highest ROI. The current enrollment trends rely on gaining more students
from the NYC DMA.
Sales Pitch Strategy?
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Focused on the best solution for reaching their target audiences for undergraduate and graduate programs. Utilizing the age
demographic allowed them to leverage their program message based on age targeting.
Products Purchased:
• Education BT
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Education – Multi DMA
Objections that were overcome?
• Needed to show that Yahoo! would be more effective than their in-house
managed SEM campaigns. Outlined the targeting and plan details so customer
was educated and confident about Yahoo!. The annual campaign mirrored their
enrollment and open house schedules.
Customer Expectations vs. Campaign Performance?
The customer’s expectations were exceeded with the review of their first
month’s performance. We recommended one small targeting change to improve
performance.
Describe Optimization Tactics or Renewal Strategies:
• We’ve scheduled monthly performance reviews with the customer. In addition,
we are internally monitoring the campaigns weekly. We’re also designing new
creatives each month.
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