Case · Education · Study Abroad
TOEFL Olympiad
We launched a TOEFL Olympiad to a generation that scrolls past ads.
A two-phase, full-funnel campaign that introduced the TOEFL Olympiad to India's Gen Z — turning study-abroad ambition into reach, a qualified database, and registrations that cleared every target set.
What needed fixing.
A brand-new property. Zero awareness. The world's most competitive education market.
The TOEFL Olympiad launched into India with no recognition and a demanding audience — Gen Z students who are digitally native, ad-fatigued, and highly selective about the brands they let in. A conventional awareness push wouldn't move them; the campaign had to earn attention, not buy it. And it had to do that while hitting three hard targets:
- Introduce the Olympiad to Gen Z students aspiring to study abroad.
- Build a qualified database of 100,000 from a reach of 1,000,000.
- Convert that interest into 10,000 valid TOEFL registrations.
01 — Launching a new property · India's study-abroad generation
This generation won't respond to a test marketed at them. They respond to an opportunity built around their ambition — so we sold the destination, not the exam.
Strategy desk
MarkAge360 · Gen Z audience review
Five moves, one operating system.
Sell the destination, not the test
Research-led positioning built the whole campaign around a dream university, not an exam. The Olympiad became a gateway — where the prize was a year of study abroad.
Precision paid media
Meta, YouTube, Google Search and the Display Network, with layered targeting on study-abroad intent, educational interests and in-market test-prep signals.
Creators, webinars and affiliates
Education influencers, live "Demystifying the TOEFL Olympiad" webinars, and trusted affiliate partners turned curiosity into understanding.
Interactive by design
Gamified, AR-led formats — a Global Campus Explorer filter, language quizzes and community activations — meeting Gen Z the way they already choose to engage.
Personalised nurture to conversion
Segmented email and SMS journeys plus cross-channel retargeting carried each registrant from first spark of interest to a valid test entry.
Four targets. Every one cleared.
Reach, database, registrations and a revenue target: the campaign cleared every one, then kept working after the Olympiad itself had ended.
Organic brand demand grew through the campaign, with students searching the Olympiad by name rather than just meeting it in an ad. Registrations kept coming beyond the event, extending results past the original scope. And every contact was captured with consent and structured for inside-sales, turning a campaign into a durable revenue channel.
We were introducing an olympiad nobody had heard of, to one of the hardest audiences to win over. The MarkAge360 team understood our students better than we did, and built a launch that genuinely connected. We cleared every target we set — and registrations kept coming well after the event. A calm, sharp team that did exactly what they said they would.
Urvashi S.
Marketing Lead · TOEFL Olympiad
Launching something new to a hard-to-win audience?
If you're introducing a brand-new property to a demanding, ad-fatigued market, we'd love to show you what a research-led, full-funnel launch would translate to.
