Save My Exams
In a nutshell
Save My Exams is a next-level exam revision platform for teenagers. But getting people to pay for it was proving difficult. I worked with the leadership team to reposition the brand as an indispensable aid.
FULLER STORY
The internet is jam-packed with revision resources. Tools, apps, videos, hacks, past exam papers, study schedules - you name it. It’s a messy landscape that overwhelms students and makes cut-through hard.
The internet doing its best to overwhelm students
Save My Exams is like nothing else out there. It provides bespoke revision questions and notes exhaustively compiled by a team of ex-teachers and ex-examiners, tailored to each exam board.
On top of this, all its resources and tools are organised meticulously and delivered through a beautifully designed interface and revision portal. Save My Exams turns revision chaos into clarity and coherence.
PICKING OUR ENEMY
It’s common to position a brand against its closest competitors. Here it made more sense to position Save My Exams against the wild west of online revision resources, much of which are free.
After all, students didn’t differentiate between free and paid for services. It all gets munged together. The strategic goal was show that Save My Exams was everything the chaotic web wasn’t.
THE PAIN POINT
Students get overwhelmed by revision. Their stress comes from not knowing where to focus. Too many subjects and not enough time. Their teachers want to help but feel over-stretched themselves.
The sheer number of resources on the web exacerbate this problem. Students aren’t sure which ones will help and which ones won’t. However, students that use Save My Exams seemed to feel the opposite way…
THE IDEA
Credible, expert guidance combined with the platform’s peerless usability all pointed to one idea: the ability to confidently zero in on the parts that will make the biggest difference to grades.
I captured this with the line, Master What Matters. An idea true to the company’s unique offering, relevant to students’ needs, and in clear opposition to the chaos and distrust of free resources.
As well as delivering simple, actionable brand attributes, I translated them into Tone of Voice guidelines. I made sure the document was long enough to be useful but short enough to be used.
Designer Sam Stephens then stepped in to refresh the visual brand. The goal was to increase SME’s premium associations and visually emphasise their promise to focus on the elements that matter most.
I also wrote a lot of copy and developed comms ideas for Save My Exams, bringing the concept to life across channels. These were visualised by Sam to establish a content blueprint for the marketing team.
““Working with Andy on our brand refresh was a huge success and we couldn’t have been more impressed with his work.
Not only did he manage to gain a deep understanding of our business & customers within a short amount of time but he has a unique ability to distill complex issues into short, meaningful concepts.
Besides being a pleasure to work with, Andy delivered incredibly high-quality outcomes at a rapid pace that was in line with our ambitious scale-up culture. I would, without hesitation, recommend him to anyone looking for an outstanding brand strategist.””
Final thought
This project showed what’s possible in a short amount of time. I delivered the strategy, copy examples and tone of voice guidelines in three weeks thanks to a mutual commitment to make fast decisions. Woosh.