Ivey Business School
Mastering Results among Hard-to-reach Leads
Effective advertising doesn’t come from good ads
There’s a misconception that a great ad concept coupled with a beautiful design leads to sales and action — we know better. There’s so much more to consider: effective customer journeys, data clarity, value communication, and the list goes on. Many struggle with this, few master it, but we’ve been working toward perfecting this these with Ivey.
The relationship between Arcane and Ivey has been the cornerstone of the recent marketing success for the university. This all began through engaging in in-depth discovery and spending the time to understand the nuances of all target programs. We’ve gone beyond marketing in our relationship – Ivey has also internally inspired Arcane U, our internal-led leadership development program.
Fig. III.IV.I - Ivey
226% year-over-year increase in total leads
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Setting the stage
In 2017, Arcane took over the digital marketing efforts for Ivey’s masters level programs, completely transforming their online footprint. Through close collaboration and analyzing of the previous year’s data, we were able to reset strategy with them. Our team worked with Ivey to overhaul creative assets in market, redefine the customer journey, and streamline conversion tracking and data reporting. Bad data leads to bad marketing, and we needed to fix that.


Fig. III.IV.III - Ivey
341% increase in YoY leads on Facebook / Instagram – at almost half the CPA
142% increase in YoY leads from Search
Fig. III.IV.IV - Ivey
Through optimizing campaign efforts to focus on highly-qualified leads, Ivey acquired a staggering 226% year-over-year increase in total leads — with the same media budget allocated the year before. Further, Ivey saw its cost-per-lead drop 109%. The search campaigns alone were so successful that Arcane was announced as the WINNER of Google’s 2018 Premier Partner Awards in the Search Innovation category — making Arcane the first Canadian agency to win a Premier Partner Award.
Arcane was also brought on to manage the rebranding efforts of Ivey’s Executive Education branch of services, now known as The Ivey Academy.