Schools get the message
BOOKSELLER 08.06.2007
Targeting the schools market is getting easier, especially for publishers with plenty of cash. Third-party media suppliers can get advertising into schools via posters, postcards and homework diaries.
The growing role of the private sector in the British education system is having a marked effect both on how schools are run and how they interact with businesses. Corporations, ranging from banks and energy groups to local suppliers, are developing their links with schools through marketing and sponsorship support, or by visiting schools to talk about their industries and to provide careers advice.
Alan Scurfield, managing partner of media supplier Ten Nine, a company that places poster campaigns in schools, says the Education Act 2005 encapsulated changes that were already happening in the school environment. "The divide between education and the world beyond schools and colleges is fading," he says. "This is reflected in the creation of specialist schools—sport or science or arts—where businesses in those specialist areas are getting involved."
While schools are no longer off-limits to marketing departments, the information flow into teaching establishments is carefully monitored by the schools themselves. The media agencies that often work alongside publishers to get marketing messages into teaching establishments are also careful to ensure the schools involved are happy with any campaign being run. Bob Strawbridge, director of Ten Nine, says the company will only run poster campaigns agreed by the school in which they will be displayed. It also works only with secondary schools. "The issue is responsible messaging," he stresses.
Many major brands remain wary of backing school promotions because if they get it wrong the backlash could be costly. But Sue Wills, head of marketing, development and sponsorship for Boomerang Media, which sells advertising into schools via postcards and diaries, says books and authors are seen as "appropriate products".
Alison Ruane, head of marketing for HarperCollins Children's Books, agrees that information about books and authors is often welcomed. "Teachers are very passionate about good books and that is why we need to engage them in marketing; they will encourage children to read these books," she says.
Will it work for you?
For some books, schools are a vital sales channel. HarperCollins heavily promoted C S Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe into schools before the launch of the film in 2006. A similarly high-profile schools campaign is anticipated in spring 2008 to support the next Narnia book, Prince Caspian, to move into film.
School marketing campaigns are often managed by a media buying partner and can include such elements as posters, postcards, stickers and diaries. The advantage for schools that agree to support promotions is often financial—they can typically receive around 25% of the fee paid to the media agency by the publisher for a poster installed on their premises, which can provide a useful additional income stream.
For the advertiser, marketing to schools is one of the most direct ways to reach potential customers. Ten Nine supplies around 750 secondary schools with posters. These are placed in prominent places and are seen by each pupil on average 2.3 times daily. The diaries produced by Boomerang, which are used by pupils for homework and notes, are distributed to around one million school children. The company has also introduced diaries for teachers that carry advertising.
However, this level of targeting comes with a price tag beyond the limit for many publishers. For a poster campaign, the rate would be around £150 per school per poster for a two-week period, although joint ventures between publishers could help to reduce costs—which is something Ten Nine is exploring. For a national campaign involving advertising in diaries, or a two-week postcard campaign in libraries, the cost is likely to work out at between £5,000 and £10,000.
The expense involved means publishers investing in this kind of campaign need to ensure that it works for them. According to HarperCollins' Ruane, this requires making sure that the campaign strongly encourages children to act on the advertising message. The HarperCollins Narnia campaign, for example, included a competition encouraging children to write a page about their favourite character, where the prize was two tickets to the film premiere. "You need to promote either retail offers or competitions with such prizes as games consoles," Ruane says. "That way you can measure the response to the campaign." Wills from Boomerang says its research also supports the offer of freebies or vouchers. "That is what children told us they want," she says.
Targeting the techie generation
Mark Dix, account handler at media agency Total Media, agrees that advertising alone will not get the message across. "It is not enough simply to broadcast and/or expose a child to a message once or even several times. Children are now hugely tech-sawy—the vast majority of younger readers whom we target were born post-inception of the internet and expect innovative, engaging and testing content as standard." And while he believes advertising in schools allows for high frequency of exposure in a credible message environment, he adds: "[It] cannot offer the same level of sophisticated content as online and magazines."
A more traditional and cost-effective route into schools for publishers is through school clubs and fairs. Scholastic, Red House, Puffin and Troubadour have all had success reaching children in this way. Local booksellers, which traditionally have strong links with schools, also run book fair promotions in schools.
The Puffin Book Club uses its magazine to introduce young readers to authors via fact files and interviews, and children are encouraged to actively participate in competitions and activities. When pupils make purchases, schools are rewarded with commission to spend on books. "We also offer teachers incentives such as book packs for the classroom, or top titles from Penguin's adult divisions if they recommend another teacher," explains product manager Sarah Walden.
The internet is seen as the way forward by Puffin, and in September the company will unveil new online resources giving additional support to teachers and families. The initiative will also help to mark the Puffin Book Club's 40th anniversary.
Using the media mix
While the internet is an expanding avenue for book sales, school book fairs, which give a hands-on experience, are proving robust in the current environment. Scholastic runs some 22,000 fairs across the UK and Ireland each year, marketing and selling a range of publishers' books directly into schools. Again, commission is awarded for the books sold, meaning more books can be bought for the school.
Miles Stephens-Hoare, m.d. of Scholastic's school sales, says its aim is to sell more at each fair rather than increase its number of events. "We support teachers in more and more ways in how to use a fair to promote literacy and reading, and we are building the fun element for pupils." Each season a theme is built into the fairs—the last was "Reading Rainforest"—so projects can be developed around them. More support resources are being developed and already include some online materials and activities.
Publishers have a range of other educational-based media available to them to develop their own dedicated campaigns. Templar, for example, is creating teacher notes for the upcoming Mythology by Dugald Steer that will be launched through the Times Educational Supplement with a free poster featuring a map of Ancient Greece and a family tree of the gods. The teaching resources will also be promoted on children's books web-site www.readingzone.com.
The internet is increasingly part of publishers' inhouse campaigns. Puffin's Roald Dahl Day promotion each September relies on the strength of the Dahl website and internet-based marketing both to get schools on board and as a resource to deliver information.
Dorling Kindersley, meanwhile, is launching a new online subscription service for schools, to be called Eyewitness Interactive and based on the Eyewitness Guides series. Hermione Ireland, publicity director for DK, says: 'Teachers will be able to search and interact with the content from 50 Eyewitness titles, as will their classes."
The key to future advertising campaigns will be the level of engagement the campaign offers. "As a result of the high volume of advertising directed at children, it is now important to use media formats that allow for interaction and engagement," says Total Media's Dix. This interaction could be as simple as encouraging children to enter a competition through a magazine or online advertorial, or could be more advanced in the form of an online game, blog or reading group chat-room. Whichever communication route is chosen, it seems that the importance lies in getting children to interact with the product or brand. |
