Chegg, the leading students-first connected learning platform, makes higher education more affordable and more accessible, all while improving student outcomes. Chegg often surprises students with things students love, such as freebies in textbook boxes (free Redbull and Tide Pods?? Yes please!) Chegg Music 101 is another form of surprise and delight marketing designed to support music education and give artists and brands big visibility during key business periods through the most unique music experience for students.
Through a multi-platform campaign that utilizes Chegg's on-site marketing, textbook box inserts, email channels that reach millions of students, social media for Chegg, the artists, and brand partners, as well as in-person event marketing, Chegg Music 101 creates viral and social media conversations to elevate the brands of all parties involved. Artists see Chegg as a new, innovative, and authentic way to reach students and promote their new singles, albums, and tours. Working with artists gives Chegg the opportunity to expand to new audiences. Integrating with brand partners allows for other brands to be a part of an initiative that supports music education, and also use their platform to amplify the messaging and expand the campaign reach.
As a part of each Chegg Music 101, Chegg gives the winning school the David B. Goldberg $10,000 Music Grant to support music education. Chegg wants to make sure that students studying music and the arts are also getting the support they need to succeed.
Chegg Music 101 is a month-long, nation-wide competition that gives students the opportunity to win their favorite artist coming to their school to takeover class for a day. After successful Chegg Music 101's with Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Chegg was back again in 2016 with three Chegg Music 101's, continuing to prove that Chegg is the most unique place to bring top artists and brands directly to students. In 2016, Chegg teamed up with Rachel Platten, Shawn Mendes, and Kaskade in three separate Chegg Music 101 campaigns.
Chegg partners with other brands that also care about students and music education for the Chegg Music 101 experience. For the campaign with Rachel Platten, Chegg partnered with bareMinerals®, and Chegg Music 101 with Shawn Mendes and Kaskade were both powered by the smoking prevention campaign, truth®.
Chegg Music 101 utilizes all of Chegg's marketing channels, including the textbook boxes, email marketing, organic and paid social media marketing, on-site marketing, and Pandora ads. What makes Chegg unique is the ability to access students directly through textbook orders, allowing Chegg to market the campaign through inserts placed in the iconic orange textbook boxes mailed to students at the beginning of the each semester. The student that rallied her high school to win Chegg Music 101 with Shawn Mendes first heard about the contest through a textbook insert, showcasing the power of that marketing channel for Chegg and brands.
Chegg Music 101 consists of three main experiences: contest entry via a dedicated landing page and contest portal; on-site social activation to engage students nationwide on the day of the event; and the live event itself, where the artists participate in an exclusive Q&A session and perform their favorite songs, right on campus.
The contest platform gives students several opportunities to earn bonus votes, one of which is watching a video from the brand partner, allowing these brands to authentically reach even more students. Students can also earn bonus votes by downloading the artist's most recent single, giving even more visibility to the artist, or engaging further with a Chegg product such as downloading the Chegg app, or checking out a new Chegg product or service.
For Chegg Music 101 with Shawn Mendes, Chegg re-engaged with students at the winning school by launching geofilters to further promote the event on student's Snapchat channels. These filters garnered over 170K views, extending the event reach past the students on campus. Students could also follow @chegg on Snapchat for a chance to win a signed copy of Shawn Mendes' new album. Through additional PR efforts, the event with Shawn Mendes garnered over 21M PR impressions through outreach to local and national media outlets.
Through the cross-platform reach and integration of the artists' social media channels, 2016 #CheggMusic101 proved to be Chegg's largest ever campaign series:
Over 102.2 million total campaign impressions
Over 1.2 million total votes
Over 10,000 schools entered
Over 100,000 students voting
