‘WE SEE IT’ - MARKETING INSIGHT

WE SEE IT

In March 2021 we launched our new website and school film as part of our marketing strategy and rebranding and both have been met with a great deal of positive feedback from prospective parents, overseas agents and our school community. Head of Marketing & Admissions, Joanna Conway, who joined Shebbear in summer 2020, explains the thinking behind the concept.

Why did you decide to create a school film as one of your main projects?

When I joined Shebbear during lockdown one of the first things I did was to send out an online survey to all our staff members to find out a bit more about the school, what they felt were our strong points and what was unique about us. I am an Old Shebbearian and so I know a bit about the school, but I wanted to find out how it had changed and how it was perceived now.

The comments that came back were really positive and there were a couple of themes that emerged - the first was that our unique selling point (USP) was definitely the fact that, being a small school, we really do know every single pupil individually and because of this, we are able to provide a tailored learning experience for them. The second theme was that not many people know about us - I think we were described quite often as a hidden gem in the comments. I didn’t want us to be a hidden gem, I wanted us to be a gem that people knew about!

A film that could capture the spirit of Shebbear College would be a great way to spread the word about us and increase our digital presence as a school, something that was high on my list of priorities. The film, along with the website, became my two main projects for the next few months.

How did you decide what was going to be in the film?

I first met with All Told, the company that produced the film, in the autumn term. Following this there was a lot of research: The film crew spoke at length to our pupils and staff to find out their thoughts about the school and to plan the story we wanted to tell. It was less about the actual subjects being taught or shown, but rather to portray a feeling, to evoke emotion in the watcher and to be ‘real’. So many school films just feel a bit staged and I wanted this to be different.

We came up with a script for the voiceover and then decided on scenes that would fit the words - for example, ‘That Spirit’ - was a surfing scene in a cold sea, ‘persistence’ was Toby practising the drums, ‘The confidence to get it wrong’ was Harvey in the classroom not afraid to cross something out and start over. Then I asked the pupils to be involved and, with a lot of timetabling and planning, we filmed the scenes in December 2020. The film is just over a minute long - I don’t think the pupils could believe that hours of filming one scene would be cut down to just a couple of seconds!

Did it all go smoothly?

It was pretty smooth but there were a few times when we had to rethink things. There was a scene that was supposed to show the end of the day/going home and we spent hours with a group of Form 1 boys outdoors in the cold trying to get what we wanted, but it just wasn’t working and in the end we decided to change the scene completely. It definitely gave the pupils an insight into filming - it’s basically doing the same thing over and over again and isn’t as glamorous as they may have thought! The fire pit scene in the nature trail was also cut short as the weather was so bad and the fire went out!

What was the thinking behind the website?

The website was a project that I knew I wanted to do as soon as I joined Shebbear. It is the first port of call for prospective families researching schools. Our website at the time was quite a few years old and I didn’t feel that it

captured our school as well as it could do. The thinking behind the design is based on discovery, bearing in mind the comments people made about us being a hidden gem. I wanted to encourage people to find out more about us through a creative website

that stood us apart from other schools. I chose four creative images, which were shot in October and then enhanced (by someone who can only be referred to as ‘the wizard’ because, as you can see, he is so amazing at photoshop!) to give a magical feel. The free standing door shows a pupil walking through and discovering the great locations at Shebbear College with the image growing from the open door. The website is actually a contrast to the film as where the film is very real, this is magical and almost fantastical but I think the two work well together.

Do you think they have been a success?

So far the film and website have been really successful and we have had a lot of positive feedback about both. We have also seen enquiries, visits and taster days from prospective families skyrocket, which is brilliant! I am looking forward to getting the film out to a wider audience through platforms such as YouTube and Sky Adsmart in the next couple of months. Because a lot of the marketing strategy is based on digital presence, I can track it and it’s very targeted so we are only promoting it to people who are the right age/have the right interests/live in certain areas etc. All our advertising clicks back through to the website so it is great to have a new and eye-catching site to showcase the school.