LONDON FEE SSIST NCE CONSORTIUM
CONTENTS WHO WE ARE
2
THE BRIEF
3
WHAT WS
DID NEXT
5
THE RESULTS
7
TUBE CAR PANELS
9
THE METRO & THE LONDON EVENING STANDARD
10
11
GOOGLE ADWORDS
12
LFAC WEBSITE
13
OUTCOMES
15
WHO WE ARE WSA is a full service marketing, communications, PR, digital and advertising agency with a specialist education division, working with hundreds of schools and colleges up and down the country. We assist schools with everything from recruitment advertising for staff vacancies to more general marketing such as prospectus design and open event advertising.
Marketing Public Relations Design Advertising Digital Events
As a full-service agency we aim to be one point of contact for all advertising and marketing requirements whilst saving our clients as much time and money as possible. As a registered and accredited agency WSA receive agency commission from the media when placing bookings on behalf of our clients. For this reason, we do not have to pass on any costs to our clients who benefit from negotiated rates, added value opportunities and professionally designed adverts every time. WSA has been working with Alleyn’s School for the last 2 years and were approached to work with LFAC on their 2018 advertising campaign.
LONDON FEE
SSIST NCE CONSORTIUM
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THE BRIEF The consortium supplied an outline of the campaign they ran in 2017 and WSA utilised this as a basis to improve upon the impact, value and coverage achieved for the allocated budget. The consortium desired a range of platforms to be used, out of home advertising, press advertising and digital adverts. The aim of the campaign would be to drive as many people as possible to the consortium’s website, where parents could click straight through to any one of the 22 listed schools and find out more details about fee assistance, bursaries and scholarships.
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THE BRIEF LONDON FEE
SSIST NCE CONSORTIUM
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WHAT WS
DID NEXT
Original London Fee Assistance Consortium design concepts by WSA:
WSA conducted research into the following platforms; • Out of Home, London Underground tube car panels • Press, the London Metro and the London Evening Standard
NOT EVERYTHING IN LONDON IS EXPENSIVE...
• Social Media • Google Ad Words • The current LFAC website Based on a pre-existing design concept, the WSA studio team set about creating a suite of designs for the consortium to consider. These included ideas based around their concept, new ideas based on the London Underground from varying perspectives and some education specific ideas.
... So school fees may not cost as much as you think.
To find out more search online for “fee assistance schools” or go direct to www.feeassistancelondonschools.org.uk
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The 22 leading London independent schools listed here are offering free or subsidised places to children who do well in their entrance exams, but whose parents may otherwise be unable to pay the fees.
School fees may not cost as much as you think. The 22 leading London independent schools listed here are offering free or subsidised places to children who do well in their entrance exams, but whose parents may otherwise be unable to pay the fees.
The designers produced some striking options, creatively playing on the ‘Mind the Gap’ signs on the underground platforms, creating a ‘Mind the Fees’ sign amongst many other new and eye catching London Underground themed ideas.
FEE ASSISTANCE LONDON SCHOOLS
SCHOOL FEES MAY NOT COST AS MUCH AS YOU THINK. The 22 leading London independent schools listed here are offering free or subsidised places to children who do well in their entrance exams, but whose parents may otherwise be unable to pay the fees. To find out more search online for “fee assistance schools” or go direct to www.feeassistancelondonschools.org.uk
• BANCROFT’S SCHOOL • CHIGWELL SCHOOL • CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL • CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL FOR GIRLS • DULWICH COLLEGE • EMANUEL SCHOOL
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• FRANCIS HOLLAND SCHOOL REGENTS PARK • FRANCIS HOLLAND SCHOOL SLOANE SQUARE • GODOLPHIN & LATYMER SCHOOL • HABERDASHERS’ ASKE’S BOYS’ SCHOOL • HIGHGATE SCHOOL • KING’S COLLEGE SCHOOL
• LADY ELEANOR HOLLES SCHOOL • LATYMER UPPER SCHOOL • NORTH LONDON COLLEGIATE SCHOOL • SOUTH HAMPSTEAD HIGH SCHOOL • ST ALBANS SCHOOL • ST ALBANS HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
• ST HELEN’S SCHOOL • ST PAUL’S GIRLS’ SCHOOL • UNIVERSITY COLLEGE SCHOOL • WESTMINSTER SCHOOL
WESTMINSTER SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE SCHOOL
ST PAUL’S GIRLS’ SCHOOL
ST HELEN’S SCHOOL
ST ALBANS HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
ST ALBANS SCHOOL
SOUTH HAMPSTEAD HIGH SCHOOL
NORTH LONDON COLLEGIATE SCHOOL
LATYMER UPPER SCHOOL
LADY ELEANOR HOLLES SCHOOL
KING’S COLLEGE SCHOOL
HIGHGATE SCHOOL
HABERDASHERS’ ASKE’S BOYS’ SCHOOL
GODOLPHIN & LATYMER SCHOOL
FRANCIS HOLLAND SCHOOL SLOANE SQUARE
FRANCIS HOLLAND SCHOOL REGENTS PARK
EMANUEL SCHOOL
DULWICH COLLEGE
CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL
CHIGWELL SCHOOL
BANCROFT’S SCHOOL
To find out more search online for “fee assistance schools” or go direct to www.feeassistancelondonschools.org.uk
Original concept provided by London Fee Assistance Consortium:
WSA established that the London Fee Assistance Consortium had been receiving an extremely preferential rate for their London Underground advertising for some time. Whilst costs have been rising for this platform, WSA used their media contacts and buying power to negotiate an even further reduced rate. Looking into the 2017 campaign details, WSA revised the advertising taken with the London Metro and the London Evening Standard and put together new ideas for this year’s campaign. They presented LFAC with various options which included advertising within specific education features, appearing in different sections of the paper and in multiple sizes. LFAC opted for a half page advert for 2 consecutive weeks, featuring in the education sections of both papers in the first week and including a half page editorial written by the Metro for the second week. Last year’s campaign included quarter page adverts at a higher cost, so WSA was able to secure significantly more coverage and editorial whilst still making an incredibly significant saving for the consortium. The expert digital team at WSA then started working on the digital proposal for the LFAC campaign. They advised against Twitter as research indicated that Facebook is more popular for parent interaction. WSA put together a suggested campaign for LFAC keeping within their budget whilst carefully targeting an audience based on behaviours, interests and demographics.
Using a custom tracking URL via Google Analytics, WSA monitored the channel as an individual part of the campaign. This allowed the agency to see how it performed against other platforms. Having been provided the breakdown of keywords used in the 2017 Google AdWords campaign the WSA digital team began to condense ad groups into active and passive audiences (active being specific searches based on each school and passive being more general search terms such as secondary schools and fee assistance). As with Facebook, WSA proposed installing tracking to monitor the performance of the AdWords. Management of this campaign included monitoring of each AdWord throughout the lifetime of the campaign ensuring budgets were allocated against best performing terms based on search intent. As the aim of the LFAC campaign was to bring as many people as possible to the LFAC website, WSA proposed a new microsite for the consortium. The web designers produced a flat design initially for review along with a proposal for hosting, security and assistance. The purpose of the microsite was to support the campaign, so in terms of aesthetics, it was critical to ensure users could instantly recognise the branding. The design selected makes the information easy to digest and featured an improved typography to ensure it was easier to read. The user experience has a notably better flow and it is now possible to move from page to page and view more schools without reverting back to the homepage. This was deliberately implemented to ensure increased engagement, generating a higher click through for each school.
LONDON FEE
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THE RESULTS Through careful negotiations with TFL, WSA was able to acquire the usage of the trademarked tube map design, approved for advertising and marketing purposes by the consortium and used on the underground itself. This was no easy feat due to TFL’s copyright terms but WSA was able to suggest a proposal that satisfied the requirements of both parties. WSA made all required copy amendments, keeping in regular contact with TFL to ensure the LFAC Tube Map campaign was smooth and successful. TFL were informed of each piece of artwork, from press adverts through to the website, to ensure terms were adhered to and consistency of brand was maintained across all platforms.
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RE
THE ESULTS LONDON FEE
SSIST NCE CONSORTIUM
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TUBE CAR PANELS Members of the WSA team regularly reported back to the office having seen the eye-catching tube car panel adverts whilst on their travels in and out of London. As a tube map themed advert it made for an incredible visual on the underground. WSA began to receive calls from independent schools wanting to both join and work with the consortium, showing just how much reach the advert achieved beyond the initial target audience of parents. The call to action was to bring as many parents as possible to the newly updated LFAC website where they could find out more about each member school and their scholarship and bursary offering. Using Google Analytics the digital team at WSA have been able to monitor the effectiveness of the two-week campaign. Direct searches for the LFAC site went up by 113.56% and organic searches went up by 135.17%, which we can correlate to the timings of the tube car panel advertisements.
DIRECT SEARCHES:
+113.56%
+135.17%
(USERS SEARCHING FOR THE SITE USING THE URL ON THE TUBE CAR PANEL)
(USERS SEARCHING FOR THE SITE USING TERMS SUCH AS ‘SCHOOL BURSARIES’)
NUMBER OF USERS:
NUMBER OF USERS:
1,796
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ORGANIC SEARCHES:
1,665
THE LONDON METRO & EVENING STANDARD WSA ran a campaign for the consortium in both the London Metro and the Evening Standard for two consecutive weeks. They combined advertising and editorial across the education features. Using Google Analytics we can see during the first week direct searches for the LFAC site’s URL increased by 815.51% and organic searches increased by 1050%. This indicates the press adverts combined with the feature specific editorial performed extremely well for the consortium.
DIRECT SEARCHES:
+815.51%
LONDON FEE
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FACEBOOK The 2018 Facebook Campaign was the most popular source for traffic referrals to the LFAC website and outperformed the entire organic search results for the previous year. WSA was able to reduce campaign costs for LFAC, running the campaign alongside all other platforms for the full 2 months. Overall 21,109 Facebook users clicked through to the LFAC website. The audience targeting criteria focused on parents within a 10-mile radius of London and with an active interest in education and schools. Due to GDPR legislation that came into effect in May 2018 it is no longer possible to target social media users based on household income. Once through to the LFAC site, Facebook users spent an average of 1.20 minutes on the site, demonstrating the success of the audience targeted and the genuine interest of the users.
2017 CAMPAIGN FACEBOOK AD CLICKS
4,051
+421.08%
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2018 CAMPAIGN FACEBOOK AD CLICKS
21,109
Facebook rates adverts on relevance with a score of between 1 and 10. The advert featured below scored the highest possible score of 10. By reaching such a relevant audience, the engagement from users was also very high. Overall on Facebook the advert received 484 reactions, 94 comments and 336 shares, along with 52 likes on Instagram.
GOOGLE ADWORDS WSA’s digital team carefully researched keywords for the LFAC campaign with user intent at the forefront of keyword selection. Our primary focus was to reach users who had an active or a passive interest in either schools within the consortium or in relevant private/independent school search terms in the London area. This campaign was hugely successful bringing 13,654 unique users to the LFAC site. Between the active and passive campaigns it was the active group of keywords which performed best with ‘Private Schools’ being the most popular keyword.
NUMBER OF USERS WHO CLICKED THROUGH TO THE LFAC WEBSITE:
13,654
LONDON FEE
SSIST NCE CONSORTIUM
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LFAC WEBSITE Whilst being more aesthetically pleasing, the new LFAC microsite gave visitors a clean user experience and most importantly kept them on the site for longer. The new website received 63.65% more page views than the previous year as users were viewing more school pages once on the site, learning about the offering available at the LFAC member schools. Bounce rates dropped significantly from 79% last year to 56.5% this year. This 28.49% reduction is a great success for the site as it is a good indication that relevant users were visiting as opposed to traffic that was not pertinent. The site’s average session duration increased by 109.17% which shows users stayed on the site for twice as long. Overall the statistics show that the users captured on the site have significantly improved in terms of suitability.
NEW PAGE VIEWS:
+63.65%
BOUNCE RATE DROPPED TO:
56.47%
USER SESSION DURATION DOUBLED
x2
13
(UP FROM 54 SECONDS TO 1 MINUTE 52 SECONDS)
LONDON FEE
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OUTCOMES Overall the campaign has received fantastic results, meeting the brief and bringing in all desired platforms. Not only were we able to achieve everything the client requested within their budget, through careful negotiation of rates, we were able to include additional inventory within the campaign such as a new website and greater exposure within the press. Increased exposure and activity has come to the attention of other schools in the area who are now interested in finding out more about LFAC and what they offer to member schools, parents and pupils. The client has seen this campaign as “a golden chance to have an updated, integrated campaign look and feel�.
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OUT COMES LONDON FEE
SSIST NCE CONSORTIUM
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GET IN TOUCH For more information on what WSA can do for your school please get in touch. Joanna Balshaw Account Manager 01908 371177 joanna.balshaw@wsacommunications.co.uk
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