Ambition
IBM offers world-class technical education to young professionals. At the height of the global pandemic and lockdowns, enrollments were declining, and IBM needed solutions fast.
Case study · IBM
Reimagining course enrollment with AI.
IBM: A name synonymous with technical education, challenged during the pandemic by a belief most of the industry had quietly accepted: that when the world shuts down, demand for learning shrinks with it.
The genesis
Where it started.
Target group
Young professionals globally, particularly millennials: an audience that wouldn’t respond to a conventional enrollment push during a period of isolation and fatigue.
The challenge
What stood in the way.
Ed-tech’s status quo during COVID
Enrollments were declining industry-wide. Isolation was reducing engagement everywhere, not just at IBM.
Finding something that could cut through
IBM needed a solution fast: one built on real audience insight, not guesswork, and compelling enough to break through pandemic-era fatigue.
The belief underneath the barrier: that technical education had to look and sound technical to be taken seriously.
Our strategic intervention
Three moves, in order.
- 01
Data-Driven Research
Analyzed IBM’s consumer data, then executed an in-depth market research project, collating and analyzing the data and audience’s sentiment.
- 02
Immersive Event Design
Based on that analysis, helped IBM create an immersive event called The Human Code.
- 03
Celebrity & Creative Activation
Brought in Bollywood celebrity Terence Lewis (100 million fans globally), a world-renowned painter, a gifted poet, and a famous musician.
Execution & innovation
How it was built.
Sentiment-led strategy
Audience data and sentiment analysis shaped the event concept from the ground up, rather than guessing at what would land.
Art meets computer science
Merged celebrity artists with computer science, combining disciplines that hadn’t shared a stage before.
Global celebrity reach
Terence Lewis’s 100-million-fan following carried the message well past IBM’s usual audience.
Results
What changed.
Viral Reach
The event was a huge success, and it went viral.
Enrollment Surge
IBM ended up with a 10x increase in the number of monthly enrollments in their programs.
Brand Awareness
New brand awareness built specifically among millennials.
By the numbers
- Enrollments in 6 weeks
- 10x
- Project duration
- 6 weeks
- Invested
- ~$50K
Budget
~$50K
Timeline
6 weeks
Conclusion
IBM’s belief ceiling wasn’t about their content; it was about the format. The assumption that technical education has to look technical to be credible was the actual barrier, not the pandemic. Once that belief lifted, the event carried itself: a 10x jump in enrollments in six weeks, and a brand conversation with millennials that IBM hadn’t had before.
In their words
From the people who were there.
TetraNoodle blew us away. Kudos!
Melissa Sassi
Chief Penguin, IBM
TetraNoodle really is genuine and cares about what they are putting out there. Their intentions are noble.
Terence Lewis
Award-winning Bollywood choreographer
What’s next
Your story could be next.
See where you stand, then build the operation that compounds from here.