The Marketing Award for Brand Communication 2020

The Marketing Award for Brand Communication 2020 By Independent School Parent | Sun 25th Oct 2020 Link copied to clipboard Congratulations to Handcross Park School and Malvern St James Girls’ School, the joint winners of The Marketing Award for Brand Communication in the Independent Schools of the Year 2020! Their creative and integrated campaigns conveyed a real sense of energy and excitement. Read their winning entries below. Handcross Park School The last academic year saw Handcross Park completely refresh its brand look, website, print and digital communications. In order to achieve this, they went right back to basics to understand exactly what makes their market tick. After extensive market research, involving focus groups with parents, pupils and staff, it soon became apparent that what makes Handcross Park so incredibly special is the way their brilliant teachers bring learning to life for the pupils, day in, day out. The stories of brilliance in the classroom that they heard from all those interviewed gave them a plethora of ideas as to how they could start their journey of storytelling. Handcross created a campaign to showcase some of these stories of enrichment in the curriculum called ‘Today at School…’. Each carefully edited creative execution tells a different story of the real life tales in the classrooms at Handcross Park. 5 different creative executions were produced to tell stories from different corners of our wonderful school. Using clever editing techniques, they added an element of magic to each creative shot to encapsulate the magical feeling that it’s impossible not to notice every time you visit Handcross Park. To enhance the campaign, all their social media channels were refreshed with the new creative look and all posts now start with their tagline ‘Today at School’. The idea of ‘storytelling’ is now at the heart of all of their marketing efforts and has proved a wonderful way of showcasing all the brilliant work of their fantastic teachers. This idea is carried right through to Handcross’ Open Days, where prospective pupils get to try out for themselves the stories that they have seen in their ads – be that making their own fireworks with magnesium powder, figuring out a strategy to survive shark infested waters, meeting a Roman Gladiator using virtual reality tools or taking part in a giant bug hunt! All elements integrate seamlessly to ensure consistent messaging is delivered using all possible channels. An integrated marketing campaign was delivered. Strategic outdoor sites were booked in key locations by the train stations and supermarkets that we know their market frequents. Print slots were booked in local magazines such as Sussex Life and Family Grapevine as well as national ads in Tatler and The Good Schools Guide, with the creative ad reflecting the demographic of each key publication. Online ads and paid for social media campaigns were rolled out to drive users to their new website with great success (3.5% average click through rate). All channels were hit simultaneously with the new creative. The response to the new campaign has been staggering. Users to the website are up 78% year on year, their enquiries have risen by 44% year on year and registrations are up a brilliant 109% year on year. Malvern St James Girls’ School In 2019, Malvern St James Girls’ School (MSJ) launched ‘Malvern Alumnae 100’, an engagement and marketing campaign showcasing 100 of the school’s most talented and remarkable alumnae. The central element of the campaign is a permanent exhibition in School with a twofold aim: to celebrate each alumna’s contribution to society – whether that is in their career, charity involvement or social activism – and to inspire current students. Supporting this campaign is a virtual exhibition on their school website, a networking launch event at School, and a programme of Guest Speaker slots where alumnae connect with the girls to do lectures, workshops and mentoring. The make up of the Malvern Alumnae 100 is diverse in terms of age range, interests and specialisms, but the philosophy at its centre is female empowerment and inspirational female role models. From Dame Professor Lesley Rees, the first female Dean of St Bart’s Medical School, Dr Caroline Lucas MP, former leader of the Green Party, Dame Clara Furse, Chairman of HSBC UK to world-renowned body positivity campaigner Iskra Lawrence and director of ‘Mamma Mia!’, Phyllida Lloyd, there is no ‘type’ at Malvern. There is someone, and a career path, to kindle the interest of every student. It also demonstrates where a good education takes you. MSJ itself was established in 2006, the result of the final merger of five Malvern girls’ schools. In terms of the name, it is a young brand. But by aligning it to the history and the alumnae of its founding schools, it steeps the brand in its rightful heritage, and roots it to the Nineteenth century when the first of its founding schools were created. This is important in the independent schools sector. It also demonstrates how the current school takes from all of those founding schools one common thread: female aspiration and achievement nurtured by a Malvern all-girls education. This is an important communications message when single-sex education is becoming rarer in the schools landscape. The values that their alumnae show – resourcefulness, resilience, kindness, aspiration and creativity – imbue their brand values today. It has been a powerful engagement tool: current students and families have loved seeing this living, breathing history of MSJ. It is normal to see parents and girls (and staff, too) standing in front of the exhibition boards, eagerly reading about alumnae. It is also an excellent marketing tool for prospective families as they look at the website and then tour the building. One get a real sense of a school’s values, its ambition and ethos from the students it produces and how they use their talents. Malvern created a campaign video to sit across all the school’s social media platforms, allowing it to be shared by pupils to generate excitement. Many of the Malvern Alumnae 100 created short videos encouraging the girls to ‘be anything, achieve everything’ – the school tag line, carried across all of their social media and advertising, and at the core of the brand identity. The campaign has had a direct impact on pupils’ learning from a Year 7 pupil studying conservation for a project who has been able to speak to an alumna who has worked in the field for her whole career, to Sixth Form students who have received work experience and internships. It has also had an impact on admissions feedback: girls have stated that they applied specifically because they felt inspired by this campaign. Prospective parents have commented that they didn’t realise that MSJ had this history. Several alumnae have referred to it when they enquire for their daughter’s education. Current pupils refer to it constantly. It is excellent that a small idea to showcase their inspiring alumnae has snowballed into a really major strand of our marketing and communications strategy. To find out more about Malvern St James Girls’ School, please click here.