Acquisition costs were climbing — and the data was missing
In 2006, the Walt Disney Company needed to transition the College Program from a print-and-mail recruiting operation to online tools. Cost per acquisition was rising, and growing, while the metrics infrastructure was extremely limited — most decisions were being made on intuition and direct mail return rates.
The primary goals were to increase applications submitted and reduce costs. Secondary objectives: improve the application experience, increase engagement throughout the funnel, and collect actionable data the program team could learn from year over year.
Email, landing pages, and a little bit of game
We designed a campaign that paired targeted email marketing with conversion-focused landing pages, and layered in light gamification — quizzes, role-fit educational tests, and a peek-behind-the-curtain content track that turned application research into something students wanted to share.
Newly implemented analytics let us A/B test design and copy throughout the campaign, pivot mid-flight, and feed insights into the next email send. By season's end, we'd cycled through multiple design variations on the highest-volume pages.
Email, landing pages, and a little bit of game
The end-result campaign exceeded program metrics by as much as 300%. Applications tripled. Cost per acquisition dropped by roughly two-thirds. And the College Program finally had the metrics infrastructure and database it needed to optimize year over year.
Within two seasons, four other Disney recruiting programs adopted the same playbook (and opt-ins database) — leading to a similar success outcomes and a long fruitful partnership.
