10,000 Degrees

The effort require to do really understand the nuanced approach and do great work for such an inspiring non-profit was extensive. With the number of stakeholders involved it was important to get as much information as we could in the beginning so we could get the approach right from the beginning. After a number of conversations with the 10,000 Degrees team and a number of people in their target audience, we decided the best approach would be to lead off the campaign with a strong digital push. We left no stone unturned during DISCOVER and we found that programmatic advertising presented the best option for this digital campaign due to how extremely niche our target audience was: Corporate donor decision makers.

Messaging was incredibly important for this campaign and the further into the project we went, the more we realized there were two approaches we could take with the messaging. A more aggressive, corporate approach with a focus on the ROI donors would receive on the backend by sending kids to college or pulling on the heartstrings of the donors and focusing on the individuals who are trying to receive a college education. While the creative remained the same for both campaigns, the messaging couldn’t be more different. The goal was to A/B test the two approaches and then drive the ‘winning approach’ with a more traditional marketing approach.

After our DESIGN phase was complete, we needed to develop a strong digital foundation. Basic digital channels were not going to cut it for this campaign. We opted not to do social media or search engine marketing and focused all our of efforts on Google Display advertising due to how pointed our targeting could be. Not only would we reach the people we needed to, but we would also be collecting valuable data on how our target audience reacted to the two separate campaigns, which would help us in phase two of the marketing campaign. We needed to stretch every dollar as far as it could go. Not only were we going reach the people we wanted to, we would collect valuable market research at the same time. We call that a win-win.

There was a clear leader in our A/B testing based on the level of engagement that ROI-focused message elicited. Phase one of the campaign was a massive success, which made us even more excited about the follow-up approach we took during the next phase: Direct mail and good old fashioned phone calls were designed to support the digital piece that would continue to run. The approach we took on this campaign delivered numbers that were more than double what we expected. Whether it was the A/B testing to confirm messaging or the ultra-targeted digital ads, we know corporate donors will have heard of 10,000 Degrees when they call.