Animation Mentor Social Media Marketing

Overview
Animation Mentor is an online animation school that specializes in advanced character animation. Students at Animation Mentor learn from professional animators from top animation companies including Dreamworks, Industrial Light & Magic, and Pixar.

Objective
Anvil was tasked with improving online visibility for Animation Mentor for targeted keywords such as “animation school” and “character animation”.

Challenge
The Animation Mentor Website was built entirely in Flash, leaving little room for search engine optimization efforts.

Strategy
Anvil collaborated with Animation Mentor to pursue the following tactics:

  • Created multiple social media profiles on top tier social media sites Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter
  • Launched Animation Tips&Tricks and advised on the development and promotion of Animation Mentor’s blog
  • Created a StumbleUpon campaign to direct traffic to the blog, home page, and social media properties; directed paid search traffic to blog, site-hosted webinars, and social media properties
  • Anvil interlinked all social media properties, director new friends and fans from Facebook&MySpace to the blog and webinars. Anvil also created a blog roll of social media sites for www.animationtipsandtricks.com and directed users to various social media properties with Twitter tweetsDiversified the ad campaigns to more uniquely address each segment of the business model, resulting in more qualified traffic being directed to each conversion point on the site.

Results
Animation Mentor’s Facebook fan page rose quickly in the rankings, ranking in the top ten for “character animation”, “best animation school”, and “online animation school” and ranked 12th for “animation school” queries when tested in September 2008. In August 2008, social media accounted for over 4,000 visitors to animationmentor.com. Since Anvil has started working on social media with Animation Mentor, Animation Mentor has witnessed a substantial increase in accepted students:

  • 60% YTD increase in enrollment
  • 40% increase in enrollment since last quarter
  • 700% increase following term YTD enrollment
  • Increased conversion rate by 315%

URL
Animation Mentor – Character Animation Program
Facebook Fan Page