The Film Scoring Academy of Europe (FSAE) is one of the world’s leading institutions for film and game scoring education. It brings together a Hollywood-renowned faculty — from Grammy-winner Dr. Andy Hill, former Disney VP of Music, to Conrad Pope (Star Wars, Harry Potter), Dr. Norman Ludwin (Jurassic World, Star Trek), Mikolai Stroinski (Age of Empires IV), and Christopher Young, among many others.
Founded in 2019, FSAE quickly gained prestige and recognition from The Hollywood Reporter as one of the top 20 music schools worldwide for three consecutive years. Its MFA, online graduate diploma, and the long-running summer program attract students from every continent, competing directly with Berklee, Royal College of Music and other giants.
At its core, FSAE is dedicated to cultivating the next generation of film composers by bridging the gap between academic learning and real-world application. Students gain direct mentorship from industry professionals while working in a collaborative, hands-on environment that prepares them to create cinematic scores with impact.
Despite this unmatched academic pedigree and global recognition, FSAE’s marketing operations told a different story.
The academy relied too heavily on paid media to drive enrollment, while an underdeveloped inbound channel and a fragmented technical foundation led to rising spending with diminishing efficiency. By consolidating brand, marketing & advertising, sales, and operations into one scalable ecosystem, FSAE transformed this fragile setup into a business growth engine, achieving over €1M in annual revenue and record-breaking enrollments.
In summary, prestige alone wasn’t enough. The academy faced the same challenge that many high-value programmes do: a great product trapped behind an inefficient marketing infrastructure, leading to unsustainable costs.
Building an Integrated End-To-End Growth Ecosystem
The transformation began with a simple principle: stop treating channels and teams as silos and start building a single, interconnected system.
The goal? To engineer a scalable business infrastructure that transforms performance, accelerates growth, and drives business efficiency.
Here’s how it came together:
- Brand Identity Uplift → Refreshed design system and messaging that matched the premium, hands-on experience.
- Website Rebuild → From static brochure to HubSpot-powered conversion engine, designed around a well-mapped-out customer experience.
- Paid Social Overhaul → A shift from a simple campaign-level approach to a complete, business-driving channel.
- Google Ads Redesign → Moved beyond chasing clicks to targeting high-intent applicants, reducing wasted spend and building a steady, sustainable source of enrolments.
- CRM + Email Automation → HubSpot implemented as the central hub, automating hyper-personalised nurture sequences and aligning admissions + marketing.
- Operational Framework → Centralised processes and workflows to drive operational efficiency and empower the teams.
- Business Analytics → A clean data foundation with real-time dashboards to measure customer acquisition cost, lead-to-enrolment conversion rates and ROI — giving leadership visibility to make faster and smarter business decisions.
The Results
The impact was immediate and measurable:
- Over +€1M in annual revenue achieved
- 19% lead-to-enrolment conversion (up 200%)
- Paid Social generated over half of the total enrolments YoY
- Google Ads CPA cut by 60%.
- 20% lower media spend YoY while improving lead quality
- Flagship programme filled 5 months in advance (a first in academy history)
Instead of running on fragmented tools and costly ads, FSAE now has an integrated growth ecosystem — one that turned attention into applications, and applications into predictable enrolments.
What’s Next for FSAE
With the new ecosystem now in place, the academy is ready for a new phase of growth:
- Expand into new markets: Confidently launch additional high-value academic programs and enter new international markets.
- Scale Organically: Shift focus to long-term growth by developing content marketing and SEO strategies to capture organic demand.
- Maximise customer lifetime value (CLV): Leverage the CRM’s data foundation to strategically engage its alumni network for new revenue opportunities and to increase CLV.
- Strategic team expansion: The company can now expand its human capital to match the new areas of opportunity.
This is just the start. In our comprehensive case study, we break down the complete playbook — from funnel mapping to CRM-driven ads — so you can apply the same system to your own business.
