Summary
Unacademy: EMPOWERING THE DISADVANTAGED, YET DETERMINED The focus has been to help the disadvantaged students to gain equal opportunity as these very disadvantaged students, display a great drive in successfully cracking competitive exams.
Challenge
Unacademy, a subscription based online test prep platform was offering anyone access to live, interactive classes from top educators across India, but access was now a category proposition. We were also battling against well-established coaching centres with high success rates, without whose support many students believed they didn't stand a chance. Biggest challenge was - How could a new entrant like Unacademy create an impact in a sea of test prep platforms and prestigious coaching centres?
Objective
The main objectives are- • Drive student interest via increase in daily app installations. • Convert interest into action by increasing PAID subscriptions. • As a young brand talking to a young audience, in a competitive market audience, it was also critical to generate positive brand sentiment and maximise student engagement. • Good coaching institutes are expensive and confined to key cities. Students from lower economic backgrounds or remote areas start with a disadvantage as they have to take bank loans or leave their comfort area. So, the objective for us became to help these disadvantaged students to stand a fighting chance and become equally empowered. • We chose to create a new category narrative, one that celebrated, inspired and motivated students. • Our campaign's objective was not only to create awareness for Unacademy but also to make a meaningful difference.
Strategy
We spoke to aspirants and devoured online conversation. What we uncovered shaped our thinking. "Sometimes dreaming big is not enough. You need to have the right opportunity too. I come from a small place called Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, and the kind of guidance needed for IIT or any other competitive exam is scarce here" Kartik Thakur, IIT Aspirant "Every student is paying 2 lakhs for coaching. Students unable to afford this were unable to attend coaching classes and didn't pass the examination in spite of scoring good marks in the 10+2 examinations" DMK MP, Tiruchi Siv Good coaching institutes are expensive and confined to key cities. Students from lower economic backgrounds or living in remote areas start with a disadvantage to stand a fighting chance, these students are forced to take bank loans, or leave the comfort of home and make tons of sacrifices to survive and fulfil their dreams of pursuing their desired career. It's psychologically tough on them as the pressure to succeed becomes overwhelming. Unable to cope, many end up taking their lives. And yet it was these very disadvantaged students, displaying great drive, who were successfully cracking these exams. This insight led a change in our strategic focus from all students to disadvantaged students. So, the biggest strategy was to SHIFT OUR CONVERSATION FROM ENABLING ACCESS FOR ALL TO BECOMING THE PROUD SUPPORTER OF DISADVANTAGED, YET DETERMINED STUDENTS
Data
Premier institutes have an admission rate of about 0.1%. India's coaching ‘Mecca' – Kota, alone has 150 coaching centres, attracting students as young as twelve who want to get an early start. And while the test prep market today is still largely offline, the online test preparation market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 64% as ed-tech is set to become the fastest growing category in the next two years.
Solution
Our creative solution was EMPOWERING THE DISADVANTAGED YET DETERMINED. We chose to create a new category narrative, one that celebrated, inspired, and motivated students. The main narrative was to focus on the passion, drive, determination of students and also to fuel their self-belief. Our creative expression #LetsCrackIt not only leveraged the colloquial expression of ‘cracking an exam' but also gave students the much-needed reassurance that while their journey was tough, together we could conquer it. Our campaign approach went beyond creating awareness for Unacademy as we wanted to make a meaningful difference. We created a music anthem, sung by popular rap artist Naezy focusing on the issues of an unfair education system and the undue hardships faced by students to reassure students of our support in their chase for their dreams. A special episode was also created in association with Ted Talks India highlighting the shortcomings of India's coaching system and how Unacademy with its challenger mindset and model of education was set to change that. We did this to position Unacademy as the beacon of hope in India's unfair education system. A series of films demonstrated the passion and perseverance students demonstrate despite hardships. To engage students, we organised TIK TOK Dance Challenge to give young students a moment of much needed respite from their exams preparations. We also created an online web series "Kota Factory" in collaboration with TVF that showed the emotional journey of a young IIT aspirant who leave their homes at young age in pursuit of their IIT Dream. We did another collaboration with FilterCopy, through which we created humorous content for students to cope up with exam pressure and engage them with a story on the lives of IAS Aspirants.
Results
BRAND RESULT- • We witnessed an exponential rise in app downloads, as daily app installations jumped almost 3X PRE- CAMPAIGN NOS. We were the new kid on the block, targeting a niche audience of students preparing for competitive examinations. Moreover, these students already had a plethora of other free apps vying for their attention. • We overthrew market leader BYJU's just a few days post campaign launch. As our app began trending in the Appstore despite media spends that were just 2% of that BYJU's. BUSINESS RESULT- • When it's impossible to get students to pay for what they've always consumed for free, our campaign persuaded students to pay for subscription as paid subscriptions jumped by a whopping 43% • Massive increase in Valuation- Unacademy's valuation rose from USD $150 million pre-campaign to USD $2 billion post- campaign. Unacademy turns into unicorn after SoftBank- led funding round. Unacademy valued at $2billion in new financing by TigerGlobal, Dragoneer. ENGAGEMENT RESULTS- • Our branded content captured student's imagination and drove brand affinity. • Our #LETSCRACKITANTHEM got higher views than most Bollywood tracks within 5 months of launch. • #LETSCRACKIT TIK TOK Challenge Interactions were 4x industry engagement rate. Videos created by 1.6 mn unique video creators. 380 MN Interactions with Content.
