IMAGINE CUP PARTICIPANT MOTIVATION STUDY

August, 2008US Academic Evangelism Team

Alex Sun

Which half?

Half of that money was wasted……

How do we win them back?

Business Problem Research Project So What?

Part 1

Business Problem and Business Goal

17,297

6,073

3,610

658

US Total Registrants ??? Selected Competition Competitors

-65%

-82%

Active Registrants

-96%

2008 Imagine Cup US participant data

Business Goal

Maximize participants in 2009 Imagine Cup

Build up world-class SDI teams

Part 2

Marketing Research Project

Secondary Research

Virtual Focus Group

Qualitative Survey

Quantitative Survey

Secondary Research

Virtual Focus Group

Qualitative Survey

Quantitative Survey

General Motivation Study•Academic Journal•Industry Journal•Google Alerts

Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic Motivation

Recognition

Interest

IncentivesFriends

Group

Competition

Goal

Paris

Secondary Research

Virtual Focus Group

Qualitative Survey

Quantitative Survey

Provide Research Direction•Object: Worldwide Finalists•Sample Size: 18•Method: Interview

Worldwide Finalist’s Interview

Sample Size: 18

78% of the finalist want…

to make friends

72% of the finalist want…

to do fun projects

56% of the finalist want…

a trip to Paris

67% of the finalist think…

that Microsoft should market Imagine Cup more….

by sharing their stories and projects

Where’s that leave us?

Organic Flow Questions

Why Register?

Why Select Competition?

Where did you hear of Imagine Cup?

What motivates you put some

much time into IC?

Why didn’t you select a

competition?

Why did you drop out of the competition?

Why didn’t you finish round 1?

Why didn’t you register?

QUALITYQUANTITY

Why compete?

What motivates you put some much

time into IC?

UnawareStudents

Aware Register SelectCompeteRound 1

CompeteUS Finals

CompeteWW Finals

Are these the right questions?

Secondary Research

Virtual Focus Group

Qualitative Survey

Quantitative Survey

Validate Survey Questions•Object: US 2008 IC Participants•Sample Size: 46

Why Register?

8

8

6

6

1

6

Registrants

Competitors

IC seems like fun Challenge Myself Challenge Others

Top 3 reasons US Participants Sample Size: 46

Why Select a Competition?

12

4

3

Interest

Challenge Others

Prizes

Top 3 reasons US Participants Sample Size: 46

Why did you drop out?

8

6

5

3

3Registrants

Competitors

Time constraint No Communication Strong competition

Top 3 reasons US Participants Sample Size: 46

Friend40%

Search Engine/ Blog 24%

MSFT 22%

Forum9%

Faculty5%

How did you learn about IC?

Top 5 reasons US Participants Sample Size: 46

What would you do to improve IC?

Let more students know about IC!

Quantitative Survey

Secondary Research

Virtual Focus Group

Qualitative Survey

Quantitative Survey

Provide Actionable Findings•Object: US 2008 IC Participants•Sample Size: 120

Make

Prizes

Learn

Go To

Recognition

My Perfect Imagine Cup

UnawareStudents

Aware Register SelectCompeteRound 1

CompeteUS Finals

CompeteWW Finals

Why didn’t you register?

Why Register?

– Offer tangible prizes

– Encourage more students to participate in IC

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

IC Survey, 2008 Sample Size: 120Satmetrix Net Promoter Scores,2008

7970

16

Apple Imagine Cup Median NPS of 400 Companies

Part 3

Why it matters to the ADE Team?

Maximize ADE’s

Performance

P

NSATNFAVADOPTIONTIME

Student Accuqsition and

Maximize ParticipantsP

Engagement Level

Influence Level

Number of Participants

Register CompeteSelect Final

2008 2009 Goal Coverage

Maximize Return on $$$P

Q&A

A complete research report is available!