Building a New Revenue-Generating Healthcare Audience

The Company

Pepperdine Graziadio Business School is the graduate business school of Pepperdine University, offering graduate and executive education programs for professionals and business leaders. It's Future of Healthcare Symposium brings together healthcare executives, industry experts, and thought leaders to explore the issues shaping the healthcare industry. ​

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The Challenge

The Healthcare Symposium was attracting an audience heavily weighted toward Pepperdine staff and attendees receiving free or discounted admission. The challenge was to expand beyond the existing university audience and attract new, revenue-generating healthcare professionals while continuing to build symposium's visibility and reputation.

There was also an opportunity to use the event as a broader demand-generation platform, cross-promoting Pepperdine's Healthcare Executive Certificate program and converting symposium interest into prospective student and leads.

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The Approach

I developed and executed an integrated marketing campaign designed to expand the symposium's reach, attract a new healthcare audience, and extend its impact beyond the event itself. The strategy connected audience acquisition, thought leadership, media relations, partnerships, sponsorship outreach, and cross-promotion around a common growth objective.

• Developed the event landing page and supporting marketing assets

• Created and executed email and organic social media campaigns

• Launched targeted digital advertising across Google and Facebook

• Developed media alerts, op-eds, and targeted press outreach

• Conducted corporate outreach to secure sponsorship support

• Built partnerships to expand event promotion and audience reach

• Developed breakfast events featuring keynote speakers to create additional engagement opportunities

• Cross-promoted the Healthcare Executive Certificate program to convert symposium interest into prospective student leads

• Helped secure high-profile speakers

• Lack of clear positioning and brand differentiation in a competitive market

• Outdated brand strategy with undefined audience segmentation and targeting

• Fragmented marketing operations and inconsistent digital performance

• Low media visibility and limited external awareness

• Under-leveraged partnerships and content strategies

• Rankings challenges affecting brand perception and enrollment outcomes​

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The Results

The integrated campaign expanded the symposium beyond its existing audience, increased its reach and visibility, and created measurable demand for Pepperdine's healthcare executive education offering:

• 56% of attendees came from a new audience, successfully expanding beyond the event's traditional base

• 30% increase in new leads for Healthcare Executive Certificate program generated through the symposium

• 32.4M+ media reach generated for the healthcare campaign

• 350 event registrations, meeting the registration goal and delivering 4% year-over-year growth

• Secured first-time national coverage, including C-SPAN and MedCity News

• Secured former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as a keynote speaker, elevating the symposium's visibility and credibility

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