Hacktiv8: an 8X ROAS push for a data-science scholarship
Hacktiv8 had a scholarship to fill and a story worth telling: Indonesia urgently needs data scientists. The work paired PR with performance marketing, turning a webinar funnel into registrants, national coverage, and an 8X return on ad spend.
Context
Hacktiv8 is an Indonesian coding bootcamp. It launched a data-science scholarship under a sharp premise: the country urgently needs data scientists. The remit was to propose and run the PR campaign promoting the scholarship while optimizing the digital marketing behind it, against a scholarship campaign worth IDR 500 million.
The problem
A scholarship only works if the right people hear about it and trust it. Paid ads buy clicks, but a career-changing decision needs credibility, not just reach. The challenge was to generate qualified demand and legitimacy at the same time.
The approach
PR and performance, run as one funnel:
- A PR narrative with a real hook. Frame the scholarship around a genuine talent gap ("Indonesia urgently needs data scientists"), then earn coverage for it, including a virtual press conference.
- Webinars as the conversion moment. Use webinars to educate first, build trust, then convert attendees into scholarship registrants.
- Performance marketing into the funnel. Facebook and Google ads driving lead generation into the webinars, optimized toward return on ad spend rather than vanity clicks.
The outcome
Average monthly spend ran around IDR 200 million, directed at the webinar funnel and optimized to that 8X return.
What carried forward
PR and performance are stronger together than apart. PR earns the credibility a high-consideration decision requires; performance marketing turns that credibility into measurable registrations. Running them as one funnel, with webinars as the trust-building middle, is the pattern that produced the return here.
Ads buy attention. PR earns belief. You need both to fill a scholarship.
Reported case figures reflect contributions to team outcomes during the engagement described, not sole-authored results. Work delivered via Calibreworks.