Checking out our portfolio is great, but it doesn't really tell you how or why we did things.
So, here are a few case studies to help you better understand the way we think and work. We'd show you our brains, but that would just get messy.
Help online students feel more connected to their school and each other to increase retention and alumni relations.
Insight
Online students do not share the same degree of camaraderie, community and connection as their on-campus counterparts because they simply do not come together, face to face in the same physical space.
Solution
Build a Virtual Campus in Second Life
Bryant & Stratton College is a 150-year-old school that offers associate and bachelor degrees at 15 campuses
throughout New York, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin as well as online.
Looking to foster a greater sense of community for the online school, we developed a "virtual campus" in
Second Life (SL) as a place to bring online students, faculty and alumni together.
The Second Life campus was designed to resemble a real college quad with 7 different structures
including library and student union.
Grove executed all facets of the campus development including: ideation, land purchase,
architectural/interior/landscape design and all programming. In addition, we integrated
the SL registration process into the Bryant & Stratton web site, so that people new to SL
had an easy, streamlined way to access the campus.
“Engaging with students has always been an issue for online education. Grove's idea and execution of our virtual campus has been incredible.”
Scott Traylor Bryant & Stratton
The campus is open 24/7 and students come regularly to meet and socialize. In addition, we are
leveraging the campus through a variety of integrated marketing programs and live events such as
open houses for prospective students, a guest speaker series (with live speeches), career fairs,
live music performances and other events all "in world".
The First-Ever Second Life Graduation
As part of this strategy, we executed the first-ever live graduation in Second Life. Attended by students, faculty and staff,
this event included a procession, the conferring of degrees to student avatars draped in caps
and gowns, a valedictorian speech and a commencement address by Philip Rosedale, the Founder and Chairman of
Second Life. We even gave the students a graduation party complete with live band and avatar dancing right after the ceremony.
Results
Launched in March 2009, the Bryant & Stratton Second Life campus has won rave reviews and is generating results.
Open Houses have experienced a large turnout of prospective students and we have received many Thank You emails from those attending saying the events were fun and informative. There have also been actual new enrollments from the open house events.
Admissions reps have reported that prospects are excited about the idea of Bryant & Stratton offering a virtual campus and cite it as a great point of difference over competitors.
Bryant & Stratton faculty members are engaging in Second Life and are beginning to incorporate the virtual campus into their classes.
The feedback from the graduation was overwhelmingly positive and the event garnered a lot of coverage for Bryant & Stratton in the national press including broadcasts on national and local FoxNews broadcasts.
Articulate the advantages Fidelity Ventures provides to growing technology companies as a part of the Fidelity ecosystem.
Insight
Entrepreneurs take their business very personally and are skeptical when it comes to venture capitalists (or as they often refer to them, "vulture capitalists".) As a result, when choosing a VC firm, soft skills such as trust, integrity, relationships and partner chemistry often carry the day.
Solution
We developed the "Capital +" brand platform as a way to simply communicate Fidelity Ventures' greatest
strength -- its ability to provide company founders with much more than just capital. The campaign's powerful
mnemonic device is used to convey both the philosophical "pluses" Fidelity Ventures brings, such as passion
and commitment, as well as the more tangible "pluses" such as industry expertise, operational know-how, and
a vast global network of contacts.
Videos demonstrate the chemistry between Fidelity Venture partners and entrepreneurs. See more Capital + Videos
For a new Fidelity Ventures web site, our strategy was to bring the Capital + idea to life by demonstrating the chemistry between entrepreneurs and Fidelity Venture partners. To this end, we developed series of "duet videos" featuring Fidelity Venture partners and entrepreneurs together, discussing the dynamics of their relationship.
“The Capital + idea not only nailed our value proposition in a compelling way, it provided the hook we needed to unite all of our communications.”
Bridget O'Brien SVP, Fidelity Ventures
In addition, we developed interactive "universe" pages for the team section that go far beyond the typical bios allowing users to gain a better sense of Fidelity Venture's people and what makes them tick.
Beyond the web site, we integrated the Capital + campaign across collateral, email marketing, personalized business systems and the firm's sponsorship of Inc. 500|5000.
Results
Traffic has increased by more than 50% (despite the incredible bear nature of the current investment market) since the launch of the site in Spring 2009. Time on Site and the percentage of New Visits have also increased.
