CASE STUDY

Enhanced the school’s social media content and revamped its student recruitment campaign for better results

Background

Established in 2004, National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy is Asia’s leading school of public policy and the first to introduce a fully integrated multidisciplinary curriculum. The school boasts a distinguished faculty active in research and a diverse student body of 400 students from 50 countries.

A key component of the LKY School’s vision is to transform the world through good governance and leadership excellence. Every year, one of the key tasks that the External Affairs & Marketing team (LKY School) does is to attract student applications from various regions.

At a Glance

  Student Recruitment

  • 90% attendance for recruitment events
  • Significant improvement in quality of leads
  • Improved quality of ads and targeting

  Meta

  • 22% increase in average organic reach
  • 14% increase in average engagements

  Instagram

  • 221% increase in average organic reach

  LinkedIn

  • 10% increase in average engagements

Challenges

The lack of a focused student recruitment campaign

Prior to working with Brew, LKYSPP’s team would attract leads through promotional activities, such as face-to-face events, information sessions or post-graduate exhibitions.

These tactics required heavy investments in time and money, due to the extensive travel needed. It was also difficult to scale up their marketing efforts and expand our reach to a wider audience.

Lack of social media presence

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) is widely recognized for its rigorous academic pursuits and incisive dialogues on geopolitics and international policies.

However, when we performed our audit, we realised that all of this was not being communicated on LKYSPP’s social media channels. This was a tremendous missed opportunity for the school as social media is a powerful tool in today’s digital age.

Without this online engagement, LKYSPP would not be able to reach out to potential students, collaborators and thought leaders within the educational space.

The Opportunity

After performing a thorough analysis of LKYSPP’s social media content management strategy and their recruitment campaign, we realised that a fresh, new approach was needed.

With that in mind, we set out to:

  • Plan out and execute a recruitment campaign for the school
  • Provide top quality visuals for the school’s social media and student recruitment campaign
  • Refine LKYSPP’s brand presence online
  • Highlight LKYSPP’s reputation as a thought leader and institute of academic excellence on social media through curated social media content

Our Approach

Revamped LKYSPP’s student recruitment campaign

LKYSPP’s previous student recruitment campaigns tended to result in low event sign ups and poor quality leads. To rectify this we decided that a fresh approach was needed and we divided this step into two distinct phases.

Phase 1 – Boosted selected posts on Meta & LinkedIn

As LKYSPP was organising a series of masterclasses and info sessions in several countries, we developed a strategy to maximise attendance at these events and generate leads.

We got started by fine-tuning the audience settings for posts boosted on Meta and LinkedIn to ensure that LKYSPP message was getting through to the right people. This meant targeting individuals based on their academic interests, professional backgrounds, and affiliations, ensuring they were aligned with LKYSPP’s core values and programs.

Along the way, our team also worked closely with LKYSPP’s recruitment team and provided regular updates to ensure that the campaigns were in accordance with LKYSPP’s requirements.

Besides ensuring laser focused targeting, the Brew team also redesigned the visuals used for LKYSPP’s student recruitment campaign.

By prominently featuring profile pictures of LKYSPP’s esteemed senior faculty, we aimed to harness their recognized expertise and academic stature, reinforcing the sessions’ credibility and drawing in attendees.

Phase 2 — Ran recruitment ads on Meta and LinkedIn

In phase 2, our team designed and ran dedicated recruitment ads for LKYSPP on Meta and LinkedIn. The messaging and visuals used for the ads were meticulously crafted around these three narratives: aspirational, best in Asia, and financial aid.

In addition, we made sure to use actual images from around campus and actual members of the student body. This approach emphasised our commitment to authenticity and sincerity, ensuring prospective students receive a genuine glimpse of the LKYSPP experience.

Set 1: Aspirational – We wanted to speak directly to our audience’s ambition and potential. Thus, our ads painted a picture of empowerment, appealing to the prospects’ innate desire for self-improvement. Additionally, the visuals and copy conveyed the idea that by joining LKYSPP, students would be equipping themselves with the necessary tools to address global challenges, harnessing their knowledge and skills for greater good.

Set 2: Best in Asia – Emphasising LKYSPP’s credentials, the ads showcased the elite status of both NUS and LKYSPP in academics. The visuals and copy we used are intended to give viewers an idea of campus life at LKYSPP and the school’s diverse student body.

Set 3: Financial Aid – Recognizing the financial constraints many potential students face, our ads directly addressed the availability of financial aid at LKYSPP. Through clear messaging, we encouraged prospects to explore the various scholarships on offer. Particular emphasis was given to targeted scholarships, ensuring that specific groups of our audience were made aware of opportunities tailored just for them.

Phase 3 — Created a specialised landing page for ads

In conjunction with running ads on Meta and LinkedIn, our team also crafted a specialised landing page where readers are directed to after clicking on LKYSPP’s ads. This allows us to direct traffic to a carefully curated space where the school can communicate its value proposition clearly and efficiently.

During the design stage, the Brew team also optimised the landing page’s UX/UX to ensure a more intuitive and engaging experience for users. Taking this step would improve user retention, reduce bounce rates, and also improve LKYSPP’s overall reputation.

Once the landing page was live, we also performed A/B testing to continuously optimise and refine the page’s content and design elements. This would allow us and LKYSPP to continually improve on the user experience and conversion rates.

Finally, we used Google Tag Manager to monitor how visitors interacted with LKYSPP’s landing page. This would help us track user behaviour which makes it easier for us to make adjustments.Using Google Tag Manager, allowed us to get a clearer picture of what our visitors liked and adjusted our page to better fit their needs.

Overall, LKYSPP’s team observed an uptick in event sign-ups along with a notable increase in the quality of attendees and leads. In addition, at least 60% of sign ups for the school’s masterclass and info sessions were attributed exclusively to social media posts boosted on Meta.

Curate quality content LKYSPP’s posts on Meta, Instagram and LinkedIn

As a reputable institution for postgraduate studies, it is important that LKYSPP’s social media posts reflect this. To that end, we ensured that each post and its accompanying visual resonated with the school’s academic excellence, research depth, and thought leadership in the fields of geopolitics and international policies.

For example, in the post below, we created a series of visuals highlighting life in Singapore to complement the post which discussed how race relations in Singapore have evolved over the years.

Given the sensitive nature of the topic, it was essential that our visuals were respectful, culturally accurate, and inclusive, ensuring they represented the diversity and harmony of Singapore’s multi-ethnic society without perpetuating any stereotypes or biases.

As a thought leader in the geopolitics and public policy space, followers of LKYSPP’s social media accounts expect quality thought leadership content from the school. Brew collaborated with LKYSPP to curate and select articles that would strongly resonate with readers.

Take the following pieces for example where we created social media posts featuring articles from the school’s dean professor Danny Quah.

When choosing the articles to be featured, we also took into account factors like the relevance of the content and visual style of the post.

For instance, the post below combines a topic of interest for most Singaporeans i.e. rising costs of living together with striking visuals to draw readers in.

Featured achievements by faculty

To further strengthen LKYSPP’s online presence and improve credibility, we also made it a point to feature achievements by the school’s faculty. Consider the case of the book launch event by LKYSPP’s professor Vinod Thomas for example. Rather than merely announcing the event, we produced an accompanying video that touched on specific themes in the professor’s book.

This approach not only provides potential readers with a teaser of the content but also positions LKYSPP as an institution that goes the extra mile to engage and educate its audience

Highlighted alumni stories to enhance LKYSPP’s reputation

As part of our wider strategy, we also featured LKYSPP’s alumni in our posts. These alumni stories would serve as testimonials of the quality of education provided by the school and its position as a top institution for public policy.

Simultaneously, featuring alumni stories serves to humanise the institution, bridging the gap between abstract academic achievements and real-world outcomes.

By highlighting alumni successes, challenges faced, and their contributions to the global discourse, we paint a picture of the LKYSPP education experience as one that goes beyond the classroom and extends into impactful, lifelong careers.

With a significant number of LKYSPP’s alumni progressing to prominent positions in both the private and public sectors, neglecting to feature their stories would be a significant missed opportunity.

Results

  • Overall, with Brew’s intervention, LKYSPP was able to enjoy an increase in impressions and engagement rates across all of its social media platforms.
  • At the same time, by enhancing LKYSPP’s student recruitment campaign, we helped the school significantly improve attendance at events while bringing in higher-quality leads for sign ups.

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