VIP Kid

• VIP Kid is a leading online English-teaching platform that is based in China. The platform connects students who want to learn English with the English teachers in America.
• VIP Kid outsourced a marketing agency, Just Global, to develop its marketing strategies. Just Global allowed research to guide their marketing strategies as they have seen how research indicates that audience interest and behaviors are more effective indicators as compared to demographic factors. They also avoided the pitfalls of overly-generalized targeting that's why they "devised an entirely data-driven, audience-first approach that dictated where media was bought."
• Their media spend was then distributed to "highly targeted broadcast television through Connected TV (with channels such as HGTV, Discovery, Travel, and TLC), with a digital mix creating impact and results across YouTube, native, display videos, and display banners – most of which was run through JUST’s in-house platforms."
• They also used banner ads for targeted personas. They "developed three highly-detailed audience personas: stay-at-home parents, part-time workers, and teachers (retired and active)" and they researched each persona’s geographic locations, type of messaging they respond to, and media consumption habits.
• The marketing agency delivered increased site traffic, tens of millions of impressions, increased branded keyword searches, tens of thousands of video views, and drove a 25% improvement in website engagements.
• According to Jeremy Cook, senior brand manager of VIP Kid, "We are still relatively new to the U.S. market, so being able to stand out in front of the right people was important to us. We have a unique target audience, in that we are looking to recruit teachers to our platform, not sell them something. By using insightful data and specific channels, we were able to get in front of the right people and we hit all our goals for the year.”
• Aside from that, VIP Kid also chose Liu Tao, a popular actress who has a good-mother image, to be its image speaker. The company chose a good mother figure as they sought to connect with the mothers who are seen to be the primary nurturers when it comes to children's education.

Genius Teacher

• Genius Teacher is a B2C ed-tech startup that is touted to be the Netflix of education. It is an AI-enabled quiz-based learning platform that provides more than "5,000 quizzes and 10,000 interest-based personalized videos for children." The start-up was launched by Advitiya Sharma who is also the founder of Housing.com.
• The personalized interest-based content of Genius Teacher has been engaging to its users. Also, it makes use of students' strong interests such as movies, food, nature, and sports among others in order to make student’s self-paced learning interesting. Genius Teacher's use of AI (artificial intelligence) has also provided adaptive learning and its curriculum-specific content has been beneficial to the students.
• In October 2020, Sharma was able to raise $2 million of investments from top chief executes for Genius Teacher in an angel funding round. Sharma said, "Genius Teacher is all about transforming boring education to a learning adventure. We have a big vision to be the best quiz-based learning platform loved by millions of children in K-12. Our big innovation of interest-based learning teaches children like never before. We are excited to have the strong support of 50-plus rockstar angel investors across the globe. We will utilize our $2 million funds raised to create products for teachers and grow fast to million-plus students in the next twelve months."
• Aside from the press release for its fundraising efforts, another marketing strategy that Genius Teacher uses is to partner with different educational institutions and technology firms. It supports more than ten curriculums and it also provides scholarships from and internships with WhatsApp, Singapore University, Mahindra & Mahindra, and IIT(M) among others.
• According to Whatsapp's Bose, "Learning content has failed to spark children’s curiosity, the average time spent on even the most popular educational app in India today is only seventy-one minutes, on the contrary, Genius Teacher clocks an average of 180 minutes! This fact is a testament to how engaging Genius Teacher is for students. I've enjoyed seeing Genius grow so quickly. The founders are passionate and were ahead of the curve on using tech to revolutionize learning outcomes for students, especially in these times."
• According to Gaurav Gupta, vice president of Farfetch, "Education may be a basic human right, but the quality of education is far from ideal today. Genius promises to empower students and teachers with the world’s most engaging content platform that is personally curated to their curriculum, strengths, and interests. It stands a chance to revolutionize the exceptionally large and nascent edtech market in India and globally. I am super excited to support Advitya, Shashank, and the incredibly talented Genius team in their journey."

Knack

• Knack is a Tampa educational technology company that seeks to connect students who need tutors with tutors who are also students. Knack was launched as a company that uses a direct-to-consumer model as it offered a mobile app that allows students to find a tutor.
• The company's marketing strategy is now focused on growing its partnerships with campuses and universities. In July 2020, Knack expanded its agreement with the University of Florida to provide free tutoring for university students who are struggling with the transition to remote learning amid the global pandemic.

• According to Samyr Qureshi, Knack's CEO and co-founder, "Given the lack of physical engagement and disruption of physical tutoring services, UF has signed a large-scale engagement with us to provide free tutoring for students in the most difficult courses, their traditional high-fail course, as well as an additional bank of hours for free tutoring for students with demonstrated financial need." The free tutoring service is under the $540,000 agreement with the university.