Studytracks: Case study

Credits & Description:

Brand STUDYTRACKS
Entrant WEBER SHANDWICK NEW YORK

WEBER SHANDWICK New York, USA Entrant Company
WEBER SHANDWICK New York, USA Idea Creation
WEBER SHANDWICK New York, USA Production
STUDYTRACKS Dublin, Ireland PR
STUDYTRACKS Dublin, Ireland Media Placement

Marcus Dyer Weber Shandwick Production
Sara Lack Weber Shandwick Production
Hannah Foster Weber Shandwick Production
George Hammand Hagan Studytracks Founder
Alexandre Houpert Studytracks Co-Founder
Troy Rice Studytracks Marketing Director
Synopsis
High-school aged boys around the world are currently 50% more likely to fail their exams and classes than their female classmates. This is often referred to as the “reverse gender gap.”
When he saw his son struggling to prepare for a big physics exam, award-winning songwriter George Hammond-Hagen had the idea of mashing up what kids are into (music) with what they need to be more into (school).
Strategy
To turn this exam hack into an applied study technique we needed a platform the two target groups could access: both students and teachers.
So we built a smartphone application with a syllabus interface, enabling teachers to easily create Studytracks for their curricula.
And for students, we added playlist functions so Studytracks could be shared and used off-line.
The strategy was two-fold:
1) Channel integration – focusing on the app’s innovation and the reverse gender gap to generate earned media that we could re-purpose in own channels.
2) Stakeholder integration – engaging experts, teachers and boards of education to endorse and adapt the platform.
Outcome
Studytracks has built a user base of 250,000 in France, Great Britain and the United States, with a monthly increase of 20,000 new users.
The app currently includes 1,000+ tracks, with additions daily via the educator interface and student input
Support and validation from highly-regarded educational boards/bodies continues to drive use and provide third-party credibility. Recently, we’ve received support from the Numerisation Team at France’s Education Nationale, the country’s most influential education entity.
Media coverage promoting Studytracks has appeared in: BBC News, Daily Mail Online, Sky News, CNEWS Matin, Tele Matin, Elle France, Le Parisien and The Times, to name a few.
Additionally, influencers singer/songwriter/activist Sir Bob Geldof and European DJ Cathy Guetta have praised the platform.
And the app reached #1 on iTunes’ education app chart.
Most importantly, data generated through the back-end provides new insight to how kids learn. And how to evolve the interface and subjects covered.
Execution
To enable further expansion, Studytracks was transformed from prototype to enterprise by adding subscriptions for schools and a B2B business model based on premium features.
But still designed for students, who typically have older or cheaper phones with restricted data volumes, requiring smart compression and quick downloads. And also off-line use.
We then developed Studytracks into a platform available on iOS, Android, Chromebook, and Alexa in Great Britain, France and the United States.
To drive awareness and conversation, we leveraged media relations to design offers for schools in our own channels.
Campaign Description
From math to science to English and so much more, the Studytracks app currently features 1000+ tracks that span 55 different subjects – and Including content covered on standardized tests like the SAT (US), GCSE and AS Level (UK) and Brevet (France).
These Studytracks work by turning topics into easy to remember “hooks.” As the student listens to the music, these hooks become embedded in their memory—just like the lyrics to a song you can’t get out of your head. Students are then able to recall information easily and effectively while taking their exams and participating in class.