There’s nothing more nerve-racking than exam day. Whether it’s for certification, university admission, or professional development, you can’t help but feel anxious when it’s time to prove you got what it takes. CFA Institute understands this. It also knows proper test preparation is key to relieving those exam day jitters. That’s why the organization has recently implemented a video marketing strategy that not only helps test takers get ready to pass with flying colors; it also prepares them for future success.
CFA Institute is the world’s premier association of investment management professionals. It’s a non-profit, membership-based organization that provides professional training, educational opportunities, thought leadership, and advocacy for the investment management community. As the official administrator of the Chartered Financial Analyst® Program , it offers the highest distinction in the investment management profession: the CFA credential. To earn this credential, candidates must pass a series of three exams, complete a work experience requirement, and attest annually to the adherence of professional conduct guidelines.
To further promote CFA Institute’s overall mission, increase brand awareness, and connect with CFA candidates across the globe, the organization opted to refine its marketing strategy and target a broader audience beyond its existing membership. CFA Institute then turned to Brightcove to help bring this strategy to life, using video as the organization’s core communication tool.
First, CFA Institute began by creating a number of brand awareness video campaigns aimed at the worldwide community of financial services professionals—not just those associated with the organization itself. Then CFA implemented Brightcove’s Video Marketing Suite to manage, host, and distribute these video assets throughout its entire communications network. Along with the platform, CFA Institute was also able to take advantage of Brightcove’s many features and capabilities, like global video delivery , analytics , automated social media publishing , and live stream distribution . And while each of those solutions proved indispensable to the organization’s new video plan, one in particular was found to be the real game-changer: video analytics.
Equipped with critical video performance data, CFA Institute was now able to pinpoint which of its videos played well to viewers, and which ones missed the mark. The organization’s digital production team was even able to identify specific elements in need of improvement. This way, they were able to take a stale video and recraft it as an engagement-driving machine, just like they did with CFA Institute’s test prep video, “What to Expect on Exam Day.”
Released bi-annually in conjunction with the CFA credential exams, “What to Expect on Exam Day ” highlights all the helpful tips CFA candidates need to know in order to have a successful, stress-free testing experience. In its initial run, Brightcove analytics showed the video failed to make a significant impact on viewers—it was too long and unexciting. So CFA’s digital team went back to the drawing board and created a more polished version to better suit the needs of its audience.
“Now, ‘What to Expect on Exam Day’ is a high-quality video that gets tons of views,” says Mitchell Forst, global video production manager for CFA Institute. “It also has a huge engagement rate because it’s a short story about a candidate going to exam day, and it talks about what she needs to bring, what she needs to remember, and any information that’s vital to having a successful exam day…It’s one of our most popular videos.”
In fact, the re-launched video drew 53,000 views and more than tripled its original engagement score, moving from the low 20s to an impressive 71 percent, all within one year. Out of CFA Institute’s 4,000-plus video assets, it’s one the organization’s highest-ranked videos for engagement.
“We’ve learned a lot about engagement,” says Forst. “It’s definitely higher than it was five years ago, and we attribute that to the better content we’ve been able to create using Brightcove.”
Learn more about how CFA Institute scored record-breaking engagement using Brightcove-powered video here.