brief
Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School is an independent school in Bedford for children aged three months to seven years.
Prominent Media has managed the schools advertising and has provided comprehensive PR support since 2012.
Our goal is to promote the school’s open days, aiming to attract prospective parents from the Bedford area.
our strategy
We provide media buying and planning services to help support promotion of the schools offering, including the open days and staff recruitment.
We work closely with the school to identify key target locations to attract new admissions.
By leveraging a diverse mix of media channels, we effectively reach multiple audiences and deliver impactful campaign results:
- Traditional – outdoor, radio and print
- Digital – social media advertising, Google pay per click search campaigns, digital display advertising and online advertorials
All media buying is managed in-house by our experienced team, from the initial planning stages to overseeing artwork production.
our results
The main focus over the last few years has been to increase admissions at the school through the schools open day events in the spring and autumn.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic Pilgrims were unable to hold their big open day events, and instead small one-to-one tours were offered. Prominent Media provided a strategic and creative campaign plan to target prospective parents during a somewhat difficult time.
In 2021, Prominent Media helped generate over 100* enquires from the marketing campaigns from the website alone.
Following the success of the campaigns, the website has been updated to advise prospective parents that there are some areas of the school which are currently full for this academic year and next.
*data collected from sign up forms on the schools website
- Writing monthly blogs
- Identifying and writing award entries
- Managing Pilgrims’ social media accounts including, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
- Producing social media graphics
- Identifying editorial opportunities and news stories to secure coverage in the press
- Attending and producing a comprehensive report for the schools quarterly Governor’s meeting
- Managing the website and ensuring all information and documents are up to date, including creation of the sign-up forms for their open days
- Creating and updating new website pages, including their dedicated home learning page which was implemented during the coronavirus pandemic, and a dedicated results page
- We undertook a website review on the user experience and technical aspects of the site. Prominent worked alongside the website developer to implement these recommendations
- Manage the schools Google Analytics account, and provide a monthly update on the statistics for the month and areas for improvement
- Provide campaign strategies and execute the plans to raise awareness of the school
- Designing and arranging the printing of collateral of the schools Prospectus and Pilgrims’ Little Book of Extras
- Sourcing and managing the schools 360 virtual tour project
- Producing video content to promote Pilgrims’ offering to be used on their website and social media channels
PR outcomes
Aside from generating leads, Pilgrims’ social media analytics have increased due to new video content as part of the Pilgrims’ at Home series, and the open day everyday campaign. This is also reflected on the website visitors and the dwell time spent on the site.
Pilgrims was also shortlisted in the Independent School of the Year Awards in 2019 and 2024.
“Not only do the team provide strategic thinking across a number of different media outlets, but they deliver creative solutions to our communications requirements. Their overall approach results in our message reaching the parent with whom we want to engage and attracting them along to our open days and other events throughout the year.”
Karen Sinclair | Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School
