Marketing for a new academic year

September always represents an exciting time for Yellowball. The start of a new academic year is a fresh start for a number of our key education clients and an opportunity to get our creative hats on.  The last 12 months have been incredibly rewarding for Yellowball and a period in which we have continued to deliver projects, campaigns and ideas for our clients in the education sector (here is some of our work). If you are reading this, the likelihood is that you have received one our brand in hand packages, seen a social media advert, received an e-shot or clicked on a re-marketing banner. For those who have stumbled across this post, we recently sent out specific brand in hand packages to a number of hand picked schools which we had identified as organisations which we would love to work with. But why did we go to all this effort to capture your attention?As has hopefully been articulated through our marketing to yourselves, Yellowball work with some of the leading schools in the country. Our focus on the education sector led us to develop this campaign for a number of reasons:We wanted to produce something tailored and specific to current and potential clients within the education sector. The days of ‘hard selling’ are well and truly over. Today’s marketing requires highly targeted content to clearly defined demographics. Therefore, not only did we include education specific case studies but also looked at ways in which we could relate to the industry on a deeper level…hence the fortune teller or ‘cootie catcher’ as our American cousins would so affectionately call it. For any of you who were wondering what the strange folded piece of paper was, it should all make sense now:September represents a unique opportunity for schools. Various industries tend to have quiet times, but there are very few sectors which have such a clearly defined start date. The first few weeks of September provide a window of opportunity where fresh ideas and creativity can genuinely transform how a school markets themselves over the next 12 months. Clearly, we couldn’t resist throwing our hats in the ring!Schools are still big producers of printed collateral and whilst print marketing has had a hard time of late, we are still believers that in a digital age an exceptionally delivered piece of print marketing, which is then tied into digital campaigns can be incredibly effective. The proof will be in the results of this campaign and we have looked to leverage the impact of printed collateral with the trackable nature of digital. Furthermore, measurable return on investment is a critical aspect of marketing, especially for school marketing managers that have set budgets for the year and a headmaster, bursar and board of governors to report! This campaign will allow us to publish exact statistics on how much money was spent, how much time was required by the team and how many conversations and clients were ultimately produced.  Everything that is trackable has been tracked and will be laid bare for everyone to see!This campaign provided an opportunity for the entire Yellowball team to come together to work on the same project, towards the same goal and to pool our creativity to produce a campaign that would have a direct effect on the project that we work on for the next 12 months and more.  Every single team member has contributed, from the fortune teller idea to designs for the brand in hand collateral through to the wording of e-shots and social campaigns. Think of it as a creative team building experience!Clearly we would love to chat about the upcoming academic year and where we could lend our marketing expertise. We don’t bite so give us a call on 01322 861478. We look forward to hearing from you!