Increasing Brand Awareness Amongst Students Through Targeted Campaigns

The Challenge

Discover aimed to expand visibility and brand relevance among high school seniors, college students, and their parents. In a crowded student lending environment dominated by price wars and generic promotions, Discover needed to differentiate with deeper brand positioning, smarter targeting, and emotionally resonant storytelling that reached decision-makers when it mattered most.

The Strategy

Signal Growth’s founder led a full-scale repositioning and creative execution initiative built on empathy, timing, and digital behavior:

• Conducted behavioral and psychographic segmentation to shape messaging focused on trust, flexibility, and post-graduation empowerment/
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• Created platform-native creative assets and tailored content sequences mapped to FAFSA deadlines, admissions cycles, and financial literacy milestones
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• Formed high-impact media partnerships with Spotify, Pandora, and Gen Z-centric publishers to serve native experiences across mobile and streaming environments

• Negotiated a 75% reduction in DMP platform costs to expand reach and creative testing capacity without increasing spend

The Results

Drove a 50% year-over-year lift in brand awareness among Gen Z and parent audiences

• Significantly increased ad recall, engagement, and conversion through platform-optimized storytelling
• Delivered a proven content and targeting framework that Discover adopted as a long-term strategy for student loan marketing