In 2016, Lehigh University’s College of Business and Economics announced the launch of its new one-year MBA (the 1-MBA Program) with the inaugural class slated to begin in January 2017. The 1-MBA is an attractive option for prospective students seeking a full-time MBA from a highly ranked university. Unlike other one-year MBAs, which compress the traditional first year of classes into a summer session without an internship, the new Lehigh program offers a “real” MBA experience with regularly paced coursework and a summer internship.
The 1-MBA Program, which runs on a January – December schedule, requires students to attend classes on campus, full-time. Tuition costs offer a significant advantage over traditional two-year programs. Target markets for students, who are typically between the ages of 25 and 35, include major cities on the east coast and in the mid-Atlantic region.
Belfort Group was engaged to launch the 1-MBA Program and secure students for the inaugural January 2017 cohort.
To secure students, BG had to generate awareness of the new 1-MBA Program, drive applications in 2016 for the 2017 inaugural class while also generating leads for subsequent years of the program, strengthen the university’s brand with an integrated media mix, and enhance thought leadership of the University’s dean and professors through media relations.
BG launched an eleven-month marketing and media campaign to achieve these objectives. Creatively, BG designed banner advertisements, Spotify and Pandora advertisements, social media schedules, program and interview videos, blog posts, and a landing page. The creative also helped to nurture leads for prospective students to keep them engaged and informed. All of this was central to BG’s integrated enrollment marketing plan to surround target audiences with messaging at the lowest cost per acquisition. Finally, BG developed a traditional media plan with a press release pitched to local, regional, and national outlets. This included an informational interview with Dean Georgette Phillips with the Wall Street Journal.
This campaign generated over 32,000 visits to the landing page, 750 total leads, 57 applicants, and 179 leads that carried over into the 2018-2019 school year.
