With local families at its heart – how SoGlos helped keep The King's School Gloucester top of mind

Partner

The King's School Gloucester | thekingsschool.co.uk

Sector

Education | Independent schools

The challenge

The King's School Gloucester is one of the county's most prestigious independent schools. It is both historic and high-performing, but benefits from an inclusive family feel and special relationship with neighbouring Gloucester Cathedral, that gives the school a unique sense of community and purpose.

King's has had a close relationship with SoGlos for many years, taking advantage of our large, engaged and affluent family audience to ensure the school remains top of the list for parents considering an independent school for their children, year after year.

The solution

The King's School Gloucester's campaign with SoGlos encompassed two key elements – keeping King's top of mind for families in Gloucestershire throughout the year; and driving footfall to key events – so we used a combination of evergreen, brand-building content marketing designed to inspire and targeted display advertising with a specific call to action encouraging readers to attend an event.

Emphasising that King's is a school that truly has families at its heart, and targeting SoGlos's demographic of local parents actively looking for things to do with disposable income and during their leisure time, we created three family-focused hot lists to provide inspiration for caregivers on things to do with their little ones all-year-round, including a hot list of the best school holiday camps to be shared multiple times throughout the year, strategically timed during half terms and holidays.

Building on King's reputation as one of the county's leading schools, we secured a spot in the annual guide Gloucestershire independent schools guide for parents actively looking to learn more about their options, which we supported with an enhanced business profile packed with pertinent information. We also included an interview with The King's School Gloucester's head of Junior School to celebrate a prominent member of the King's team and share that personal storytelling, all culminating in showcasing how the independent school is one of the very best choices for families in the county.

To drive footfall to key events, we published a newsy advertorial story when the highly-anticipated dates of the Chorister Voice Trials were announced; we created enhanced event previews for each of the school's open events throughout the year, including a dedicated enhanced event preview for its Sixth Form event which utilised imagery of its spectacular £2 million Sixth Form Centre; and ran two weeks of display advertising in our hugely in-demand Family and Business sections, as well as in our Lifestyle and Business newsletters, in the month leading up to each open event, driving readers to book their place.

The results and impact

The King's School Gloucester's campaign with SoGlos achieved strong engagement through beautifully-designed and strategically-targeted display advertising, gaining more than 400,000 views across the campaign. Most importantly, with clear calls to action, the display advertising moved prospective parents along the sales funnel, directly achieving the objective of boosting attendance at open events, as well as requests for more information. 

There was strong reach and engagement across all King's content marketing, with standout performance on social media for the best toddler-friendly days out hot list – which reached more than 50,000 people with an exceptional 10 per cent engagement rate. Partnering with SoGlos on inspirational hot lists like these helped to keep King's top of mind with parents of young children, while interviews added rich personalisation of the King's family, all helping to build and share King's quality brand and ethos. Views of almost 170,000 for King's content were achieved on social media alone. 

SoGlos's journalists were also able to cover editorial news during the campaign, like The King's School Gloucester being mentioned in The Good Schools Guide for the first time in its 484-year history, helping to further reinforce King's position as one of the county's leading independent schools.

In total, King's School Gloucester reached a targeted audience in excess of 600,000 by working in partnership with SoGlos on this campaign.   

Partner testimonial

'The King's School have been working with SoGlos for several years now, increasing our marketing activity with them year-on-year. The combination of display advertising, content and, of course, the hugely successful Lifestyle Awards, has proved very effective in promoting the school across the Gloucestershire community. From the clear communication and target setting to ROI driven results reporting, marketing with SoGlos is quick, efficient and effective.'

Fran Boughton, Marketing Manager - The King's School Gloucester | thekingsschool.co.uk

For more information about partnering with SoGlos to promote your business, visit Partner with SoGlos and download the SoGlos MediaKit. 

For expert advice from the SoGlos Partnership Hub team, call 01242 210330 or email partnerships@sopublishing.com.